100 To 1
by Werewolfhunter16
Summary: Tails usually preferred to keep to himself, hanging out in his workshop and trying to bend the laws of physics to his whim. But when Sonic drags him out to celebrate his birthday and get him drunk for the first time, he notices darkness poking it's ugly head around the corner. Just not from where he thought it would come from.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Nothing much to say here, I do want to say though that I am very happy with how this whole project turned out. I'm going to be writing everything like I wrote this, far in advance and have everything planned out. There's a lot less stress when you don't have to worry about people's expectation on when a new chapter is going to be released. Speaking of releases, the final chapter will be released on Friday. Without anymore interruptions, Enjoy the story!**

Today wasn't a very special day for most Mobians, though to a few it was important. The few it was important too however, had gone all-out in celebration and dragged a certain two-tailed fox out of his isolated laboratory in the woods and took him to a moderately popular bar. Knuckles Bar to be exact.

Today was Miles 'Tails' Prower's twenty first birthday. Though his friends, being some of the most outgoing Mobian's on the planet, had made plans for him long ago to go and get him, and hopefully themselves as well, completely and utterly shitfaced.

Tails was never one for large parties and thankfully Sonic hadn't arranged something big, he had only invited their close friends that were free for the evening. He had always been a little anti-social, though Sonic had forced most of it away and he was begrudgingly thankful for it.

The close friends he had invited totaled six, his self-appointed aunt Sally Acorn, Knuckles the Echidna, Antoine D' Coolette and his wife Bunnie Rabbot, Nicole the Lynx, who had recently achieved a full Mobian body thanks to Tails and Rotor that was still connected to the nano-bots, and Sonic himself.

"All right Tails, now that we've got all the boring stuff out of the way I've got a surprise for you." Sonic said, a wide grin on his face.

"Well what is it?" Tails asked, having just polished off his first drink.

"It's a drinking challenge to everybody here. If you're in toss in five bucks." Sonic answered pulling out his own money and slapping it down in the middle of the table. Tails was hesitant but ultimately caved in and tossed in his own money. Everybody followed suit except for Bunnie.

"Sorry guys, I can't join ya. Wouldn't be all that smart with a little one on the way." She said in her southern drawl, patting her stomach with her hand for emphasis.

"Congrats you two, when's it due?" Sally asked, happy for the two Mobians and wishing slightly for her own.

"Oh don't let us steal sugah here's thunder. Y'all have a hoot." Bunnie said, shrugging off the question.

"All right, the drinks are here." Sonic said rubbing his hands in preparation to win.

It was close in the end, it came down to the twenty third drink between Sonic and Knuckles. The two of them could barely get the glass to their mouths without spilling it all over themselves. But in a competition there was always a winner and Knuckles eventually lost consciousness with a loud bang as his face hit the table.

Sonic followed shortly after with a celebratory woo hoo before falling out of his seat blackout drunk. Bunnie eventually left first carrying her giggling and very drunk husband home. Nicole couldn't stand properly and fell on her ass, she was a lightweight with her licker. Sally was half conscious but able to walk. Though the birthday boy didn't go down easily, he blacked two drinks before Sonic and Knuckles.

"All…right Nicole. I'll take Sonipu home and we'll have sloppy drunk sex!" Sally lost her verbal filter when she got drunk and revealed way too much information, but she never noticed because usually when she was that drunk, her friends were even more drunk.

"I'll take Tailszzz…home then. Knuckles can stay…here *hic* here cause it's his bar." Nicole slurred out, grabbing Tails arm and yanking him off the table and onto the floor which dragged her down there with him.

The fall woke Tails up enough that Nicole could drag him outside followed shortly by Sally and Sonic where they all entered a cab. Nicole ended up falling asleep on Tails's couch and had no clue if Sally and Sonic actually got it on. She assumed they did.

_The Morning After_

Tails awoke with a groan. "Sweet merciful god I feel like my skull's been cracked open, scratch that it's worse. I'll never drink that much again." Just speaking made his head hurt even more than it did. He tried to roll over and get the sun out of his eyes when he accidentally rolled out of bed and making his head throb even more.

"Ah! Fuck!" He said through his teeth making it come out as a long hiss that made his head throb and making him whimper slightly in pain.

Tails got to his feet while holding his head and went to his medicine cabinet and grabbed a few migraine pills. Eventually he smelled coffee brewing in his house.

"Did I bring someone home with me? First time drunk and I've probably got an STD. Great." Tails followed his nose to the kitchen where a fresh brew of coffee sat waiting for whoever wanted some. He knew coffee was supposed to help with hangovers so he just grabbed the whole pot and chugged it. Something he immediately regretted when the liquid fire burned his whole mouth.

"I'm fo ftupid." He garbled out with his burnt tongue while grabbing a some ice cubes to plop in his mouth.

"Hey Tails. I made some coffee, I see you've already had some. I want to laugh but it hurts my head to laugh." Nicole said from the coffee table she was sitting at. How did he not see her?

"Nicole? I brought you home? I was upset with myself earlier but now I want to pat myself on the back." He said while smiling.

"Not really Tails. I brought you home, I just didn't want to leave because you ha a perfectly good couch right there." Now that he took a good look at her, Tails could tell that nothing did happen between them. Her hair and clothes were disheveled and wrinkly. But it wasn't all that noticeable.

"All right. What time is it?" Tails asked while sitting down in the chair opposite her.

"Like two."

"I have to go then, make yourself at home while I'm gone."

"Where are you going?"

"To the store."

"Watch yourself, there's a nasty flu going around."

"I will."

Tails made his way through the significantly bare streets of New Mobotropolis with a fair amount of curiosity. Nicole wasn't kidding when she said something was going around, the street had maybe half of the people it normally would.

"Geez, something really is going around. What happened here?" Tails had come upon the store he always shopped at and saw that there were hazmat teams outside and that there was a fairly obvious quarantine going on.

Tails waved and got the attention of one of the men in a hazmat suit who begrudgingly came over when they saw who he was. "What's going on here and why wasn't I told about it?"

"You freedom fighters haven't been notified because it's a medical issue. It's not a military issue so we didn't bother to tell you."

"I think we should have been notified! Look at the streets! They're almost empty!"

"We know, we are working-" Tails interrupted him.

"No you aren't working on it anymore, this is a pretty big medical issue and I'll get the answers from the Acorn's if I have to. This just officially became a military issue."

"Fine, we could use a few more hands. Before you go I would suggest not eating any foods purchased here. Also what's going around isn't really a flu, we can't tell if it's airborne or not but I'd be careful walking around the hospital."

"Thanks for the info. Sorry I was kinda rude earlier, I've got a hangover right now and I'm kinda on edge."

"It's fine, stay safe."

Tails had spread the word to all of his friends and eventually Sally deployed some troops to keep a quarantine under control and to help with the sick. But despite this, as the weeks passed everyone seemed to get sicker and sicker. Sally even called in Tails to help lead the team in developing a cure.

"Sally I don't know the first thing about biology or developing a cure for a disease." He hated seeing her when she was like this, recently she had caught the disease and she had this faraway look in her eyes all the time. Plus the fact that she was as skinny as a toothpick really made him hate being around her.

"I'm sorry Tails but most of the people in the city are sick…I'll be bed ridden soon as well so I'm only asking you to try…" She asked, almost pleading.

"I'll help Sally, you know I will. Whose my team?"

"You, Nicole, Sonic, and Knuckles. But I sent Knuckles out try and get Shadow here…since he was made to cure diseases."

"Wait…Sonic and I know nothing about Biology or cures. What about the Mobian's who actually do?"

"As far as my knowledge goes Tails, only you four aren't sick."

That realization hit Tails with the force of a truck. The whole city was counting on a handful of Mobians who mostly knew nothing about what was making them sick.

Tails walked in a stunned silence into the Acorn Center for Disease Control where he was let in by an automatic door. He walked past the several unused laboratories until he came upon the one lab that seemed to be being used. He was greeted by the fairly exhausted looks from his comrades Sonic and Nicole. Though Sonic barely looked like he knew what he was doing.

"Nicole please tell me we're close."

"No we're not. But we've made a little progress."

"What do we do?" Nicole explained to him how he was supposed to layer and mix hundreds of enzymes and anti-bodies to hopefully pick the right combination that the disease could slow down. Then once they had done that they had to repeatedly pick different ones that had a similar effect to hopefully all out stop it. Then they could worrying about curing it.

"The enzymes and anti-bodies are separated into groups, pick one from each and organize them in different combinations to see what happens. If the virus stops copying itself or slows down then you're on the right track." Nicole explained, pointing to several boxes that were labeled with words he barely knew how to pronounce.

"If you get the hang of it, maybe you can figure out how to reprogram a different virus to attack that one. Don't ask me how because I don't know."

"Then why even bother telling me about it?"

"It's an option, a difficult one yes, but not impossible."

So they worked, minutes turned into hours, hours into days. Days into weeks. They made very slow progress but progress was being made despite the skeleton crew working without sleep. Tails caught himself and his friends asleep at their stations several time and he reprimanded himself.

It seemed the virus did two things, from what they could gather. First, it would actually attack the immune system with something, they couldn't figure it out yet, that would destroy the white blood cells. It then slowed down or entirely stopped production of anti-bodies to fight it off. Thankfully, it spread rather slow, but the bad news was that most Mobians have had this disease for years and it was now in its final stages. This with the fact that every symptom was nearly identical with a cold made it hard to find and treat.

"I'm so exhausted…" Tails droned to himself, as he and his two friends allowed themselves a little rest from their tireless work. He laid his head down and screamed internally.

Why weren't the three of them sick? They had all tested themselves out of curiosity and none of them were immune, but yet they weren't sick. It boggled Tails mind and he decided to test some of the things that he knew he kept on him and inside him. Perhaps chaos energy kept this thing in check, after all, their immune systems were much more resilient than a normal Mobian.

"Just give me something…anything you little fucker. Give me any ground and I will end you." Tails threatened the virus. He knew it meant nothing but he didn't care.

Tails injected a little chaos energy directly into virus's system and watched for anything, _anything_, that showed signs of slowing it down. He watched with a victorious grin as it wriggled in apparent pain, then looked on in despair as it suddenly began reproducing even faster than before.

He wanted to cry when he saw what happened. Nothing worked against this thing. He eventually gave up and went to sleep for a few hours before tackling the problem on a more rested mind.

_Two Days Later_

"Please tell me that just happened. Please tell me I'm not hallucinating." Sonic said to himself, eyeing the microscope intensely.

"What happened?" Nicole and Tails asked in unison.

"I think, don't quote me on this, I stopped it. I didn't kill it but it just stopped making copies of itself." Sonic said, unable to keep the victorious grin off of his face when he watched his apparent victory.

It was a small victory, yes, but they really needed one.

Their victory high fives were stopped when they received a dangerous phone call from Sally. The last person taking care of the sick just collapsed. One of them had to go over there and take his place.

Sadly, and fortunately, the answer to who would go over was answered when Sonic collapsed out of his chair as well. Once they got him back in his feet, they noticed how skinny he was.

"I can take care of them for a while, half dead Mobian's can't take too much can they?" Sonic asked, his cocksure smile and attitude still present, despite the pain he was in.

"Here, take this now. Make sure you keep yourself safe."

"I'll be fine. You guys will have a cure real soon anyhow. Good luck!" Sonic gave them a thumbs up with a somber smile on his face before he walked out of the lab and left Nicole an Tails alone.

"Let's get back to work."

To stay on the safe side, both Nicole and Tails took the small vaccine Sonic had made themselves. Soon after they began modifying it's several components and adding different kinds of ingredients trying to take Sonic's work and make something out of it.

If it wasn't for Sonic, both of them would probably be a lot like him right now. So Sonic had successfully bought them enough time to finish, but they may not have enough time period. Suddenly Knuckles gave them a call and it was with very unwelcoming news.

"You're joking. Knuckles please tell me you're joking. Tell me you're fucking joking." Tails said, absolutely pleading with the Echidna on the other side of the line.

"No I'm not. I saw Scourge and the Destructix leave a warp ring and head towards Mobotropolis. I wouldn't have stood a chance if I fought them on my own. I'm going to make my way back now since I'm needed there. Got to go." That was all he said before his line went dead.

"Nicole, how long has Knuckles been gone?" Tails asked , a terrified expression on his face. A fact that didn't get by Nicole.

"He's been gone for about one month. What's wrong? What did he say?" Nicole was worried, Tails wasn't really afraid of much. But here he was nearly hyperventilating and looking mortified.

"Then we have roughly a month before our death squad gets here. Scourge and his Destructix crew are on their way here right now and I'll give you two guesses as to why their coming." Tails buried his face in his hands and groaned before knocking a bunch of equipment in front of him off the table.

"Then we don't have any time to waste then."

Nicole's words rung true in Tails head as he redoubled his efforts in changing Sonic's vaccine so that it didn't just stop the virus. They had a month to do what took them two with three.

After a month Tails found himself staring at the beaker in front of him and running out of time. He waited for its color to change to purple so he could test it. He doubted it would work but they had to start over once they found out Sonic's vaccine couldn't stop it.

Tails took a stab at what Nicole told him about when he first got here and started trying to change and reprogram another hunter virus. It finally changed and Tails found himself staring at the microscope again. Like he had done so many times.

Nicole was asleep next to him at her own little station. A week without sleep was exhausting to say the least and Tails himself wasn't far behind her. After a little bit it became obvious that he hadn't really reprogrammed the virus at all. It just adapted to the attacking disease and helped it out more.

Tails groaned and almost destroyed the wall on the other side of him out of frustration. He began to loathe his genius. It would always have an idea, a lead, of something that would help. But this was not something he was acquainted with and it made him _seethe_.

Technology was predictable because he would have built it, but an actual life form was something that eluded him with its secrets. He had reached his wit's end and the little fucking disease was acting like it knew too. Wriggling around and acting more violent when he glared at it.

"Keep mocking me. See what happens when I eventually wipe you off the face of the planet." It seemed to wriggle in response to his words, almost as if challenging him.

"Reprogram…reprogram…reprogram…" Tails repeated that word to himself over and over. Something about was eating away at him, how could you reprogram a life form?

"If I can reprogram a robot why couldn't I…" There it was, an idea that popped into his brain. He could reprogram robots in his sleep, he would know he used to sleep walk and do it.

"By god I've got it! Nicole wake up!" He shook her awake perhaps more violently than he intended to but he had to.

"What is it?" She said sleepily while returning to her station before Tails turned her around and and made her face him.

"Nicole, this whole city is made of nano-bots right? Instead of me fucking around with medicine I'll just reprogram a couple million nano-bots to attack the virus instead. That would work right?" Tails had a hopeful expression on his face.

Nicole went from sleepy to excited in the span of a second. "Tails that will work! Hurry we don't have much time." They didn't waste any time and by the next morning millions of nano-bots were attacking any rogue cells in their bodies. Leave it to Tails to use technology in a way no one had thought of yet.

With as much speed as they could they began giving every citizen the cure they two of them had created with glee. They were so caught up in their success that they completely forgot about the looming threat that was on top of them.

Tails was finally able to get a decent night's sleep for the first time in months.

When he woke the next morning Nicole informed him of some news that he had half expected.

"Just give them until tomorrow morning and most of the sick should be fine. I can't believe we did it."

"Nicole, how far are Scourge and the Destructix?" He didn't want to hear anything about today. He wasn't confident in his ability on his own. He wanted to hear something farther than forty eight hours. So everybody could fight them.

"I don't know…oh no that better be a false alarm. Oh god no…please no." Nicole began pacing back and forth, concentrating on some foreign data that the nano-bots sent her that only she knew how to interpret.

"What's wrong? Don't tell me what I think you're going to tell me." It seemed his worst nightmare was coming true.

He didn't get the answer he was expecting when Nicole suddenly turned and began trying to squeeze the life out of him. He returned the hug with gusto. His fears came true when Nicole began crying into his shoulder.

Tails knew what he had to do. "Nicole this is what I want you to do. Stay here and accelerate Sonic and everybody's health as much as you can. I'll hold them off as long as I can."

"But Tails you'll be killed! They'll be here in a little over two hours!"

"If I don't try and stop them then we'll all die! I have to go prepare, besides, remember Knuckles was right there with them when he called. I'll have his help." Tails said in an attempt to comfort her. It didn't work much.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'm not fighting to win remember, I'll just hold them off until everyone is healed. Lock the bunker once I leave."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Here it is, finally got to it and was able to really do it justice. Hope you enjoy! Holy sweet Jesus this story completely switched file locations and I nearly had a heart attack because I couldn't find it and I was super scared I'd have to rewrite ten thousand words! Enjoy!**

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><p>This was it, his preparations complete, Tails now simply had to wait for his foes to arrive. Using the downtime he had to formulate a strategy against the largest band of enemies he or his friends had ever fought at one time, who no doubt would end his life if he lost, and win. At least the disease was all but dead and he could finally stop having a small heart attack everytime he had a cough or sneeze.<p>

"Nicole, I might lose this. I'll die if I lose…actually to be honest we both know I won't be able to do this alone. So I want you to know and to tell everyone else I love them."

'_Tails…we love you too. Good luck."_

Quickly before his emotions got the better of them he cut the line and crushed the headset.

'_Fighting them head on is straight up suicide. If I'm going to have any chance at defeating them I will have to split them up, I just hope this works. Who knows maybe they're moving really slow and won't get here until-'_

It unfortunately turns out that his waiting and time for plotting was up. Fortunately for once, his vantage point on the top of one of the larger buildings in Mobotroplis hid him from sight, at least for now, but what he saw nearly made him lose hope.

It turns out that it was not just Scourge and his Destructix crew, deciding that now they wanted to pick a fight, but them as well as Eggman himself in a fancy new mech-suit that looked very sturdy, and had somehow convinced Miles along with Metal Sonic to fight with them.

'_Fuck.'_

* * *

><p><em>With Scourge and the Group<em>

* * *

><p>"What's the matter with this place? It's a ghost town. Eggman isn't this place supposed to be the hometown of those Freedom Losers?"<p>

"**According to scans, there is a mass of of life forms gathered underneath the castle surrounded by a very large blast shield on all sides. It seems the freedom fighters are there as well." **Metal Sonic droned out before his creator could answer the question as he had been taking passive scans of the area and was well aware of the explosives, but said nothing out of curiosity to see what they would be used for.

"What are they underground for? Metal, run a more complex scan of the surrounding area see if they have planted an ambush." Eggman ordered, his large mustache and larger belly bouncing and moving as he spoke.

Metal was silent for a moment until he revealed what he had learned. **"Scans show explosives planted underground, but too deep to cause any real damage unless you were standing directly on top of them, and one Mobian life form and no others."**

"Which of them is stupid enough to face all of us alone? Is it blue?" Scourge asked immensely curious at the guts and stupidity his lesser copy was showing.

"It's Tails." Miles said. He had remained silent throughout the trip not at all comfortable being here and even more wary at the robot's very flimsy allegiance to Eggman and even more flimsy allegiance to them. This had made him wary of both the robot and the doctor.

"No seriously who is it? Blue's little sidekick doesn't have the balls to face any of us alone without Blue himself actually being there to hold his hand."

"Scourge." His girlfriend Fiona said.

"What Fi?" He responded.

"Look ahead, he's standing there." She accentuated her point by pointing her finger directly at the two tailed fox who was standing there, and to his credit wasn't going to back down regardless of how much he was scared , with his arms crossed and his tails occasionally twitching behind him ready for a battle.

Scourge stared for about five seconds before he busted out laughing joined shortly by his girlfriend and Eggman. After regaining his composure to a point, Scourge began insulting the fox.

"Look at him standing with his arms crossed trying to look badass! Oh man that's funny, man kid I got to hand it to you." He began slowly walking up to Tails until he was directly in his face, though was a little surprised he had to look up just that little bit, it didn't dismay him one bit.

"I'm so surprised by your guts that I'll let you get the first punch. Here right in the face." Scourge said pointing right at his cheek.

"Pucker up." Tails answered already having a small plan in addition to the plan he already had.

What Scourge failed to notice was that when Tails punched him, it was with a chaos charged fist hitting Scourge as if someone hit him with a truck.

He was sent flying back a few feet before righting himself. His expression turned from one of pure rage to that of surprise when he had to dodge the chaos spear his hand was charging. He was able to sidestep the blast and immediately charge straight for Tails along with the Destructix. Eggman, Miles and Metal stayed behind because they weren't needed yet.

"Metal." Eggman commanded.

"**What?"**

"As soon as you see an opening, end this battle."

"**As you command…"**

"So impatient." Tails then dodged a punch from Scourge and then had to immediately dodge another kick from Lightning Lynx and then another punch from Scourge and then another by Lightning and then another and then another so he had absolutely no time to throw in his attacks. Until they backed off just long enough for Sergeant Simian to attempted to squash him with a very large piece of rubble which he was forced to take flight to dodge.

It was here that Tails made his first mistake and tried to take a breather in his domain. But he forgot about Flying Frog's extending tongue until it wrapped around his leg rendering him an immobile flying target that was perfect for Predator Hawk to capitalize on.

While Tails was far smarter than an average Mobian, there was simply a limit to even how much he could process at once. Which is why when he was completely blindsided by Predator Hawk's flying tackle that slammed him into a building hard enough to crack the wall. But Flying Frog, still holding on with his tongue, flung him into the ground hard enough to bounce off of before he could get his bearings. But now Sergeant Simian, who had waited patiently up to this point, slammed the piece of rubble as big as himself onto Tails hard enough to bury him under parts of the rock and the ground.

"All right Monkey! Not bad, let's get to that castle now-" Scourge was cut off by something that actually surprised him greatly. Tails unburied himself and got up.

Sure he was now far more bloody, but other than that and the slight stumble he had when he got to his feet, he acted no worse for wear. In fact he was smiling even as his own blood dripped down from his head creating small pools beneath his feet.

"You could have told me we were getting serious now! Because I would have done this!" He was then gone in a flash reappearing behind the flying Hawk looking ferociously pissed. Breaking his wing and axe kicking him into the ground while shouting,

"The air is my domain you worthless bird! You are below me in the food chain for a reason!" Though he wouldn't say it out loud the fact he had crippled the bird was out of luck and shock. Now that he had demonstrated chaos control the rest would be prepared if he did it again.

"In fact most of you are below me in the food chain! I think It's time I started proving it." Quickly Tails charged straight at Scourge and dodged him at the last moment goading him and Lightning into a chase that led them a few miles away.

"Why are we out here?" Scourge asked Lightning who was next to him preparing to assault Tails.

"He's leading us away, we are the two biggest threats to his ground fighting abilities. But I'm more interested in how you survived getting crushed by Simian." While Lightning greatly hated the freedom fighters. He had to respect the fighting ability of their individual members.

"I'm not allowed to die because too many people are counting on me. You're right Lightning, look back at the city." He chose during the chase to finally enact his biggest plan in order to separate the group, that is, leveling the city. Well a few specific buildings.

"Chao!" He vanished again but this time he appeared on one of the buildings he didn't destroy and promptly collapsed.

'_Why did I make such a stupid mistake! I knew fighting them all head on would only lead to bad things! But I let my ego get in the way and look at me! I can barely move. Calm down now Tails, you still have work to do get up! GET UP!'_

Though he tried with all his might the most he could do was get to his knees, every inch of his body burning with pain and fractured bones. Though he was forced up the rest of the way by none other than Metal.

"**Stand. You still have work to do."**

"Why…are you helping me?"

"**I'm not." **Metal then kicked Tails harder and faster than his broken body could react and was sent hurdling off the roof and was only saved a harsher fall by Predator Hawk hitting him with another flying tackle. It was so hard it fractured several vertebrae and nearly ruptured several major organs. With his forward motion stopped cold he could only plummet straight down onto the cold hard ground.

Thankfully he still had some use of his tails and was able to stop before he hit the ground, but while they had the strength to hold him up his legs and arms didn't. As a matter of fact he couldn't feel his legs. He was still reeling from the tackle.

He vaguely remembered barely crawling his way into some shelter, most likely a hollow toppled building, and then his pain faded but he couldn't move.

"_You are the chosen one? Destined to save the multiverse?"_ A voice Tails didn't recognize said. Something about it though was comforting, it was obviously his ally and he could feel the being's immense power that it was hiding. The only thing that Tails could compare it with was Sonic's hyper form. Even then…

"Yeah…w-what…about it?" He could barely speak even though he felt no discomfort, perhaps the tackle had paralyzed him.

"_If I saw you in any other situation in this sorry state I would let you die. But you showed a lot of courage. I will help you, but I will only restore you to your peak physical condition. No more."_

"Deal…who are you though?" He could feel his strength returning but he was still curious to know who this distant voice was.

"_What you are supposed to be."_ Just like that Tails felt one-hundred percent again and the voice was gone.

"All right…where's that bird?"

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><p><em>Five Hours Later<em>

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><p>Despite it having been several hours everyone in the group had not been regrouped. Only Fiona, Miles, and Eggman were in a group. Everyone else was searching for Tails, or at least that's what they thought. In truth Tails had removed Predator Hawk and Flying Frog from the equation with only minor difficulty.<p>

Predator went down when he fell for the age old bait and switch and bam. Unconscious bird. Flying frog was a little trickier but ultimately was able to be tied up and hung with his own tongue. They would be no more problematic. Though he was immensely curious how he seemingly recovered from his broken wing so quickly.

The entirety of most of the city had become a completely closed off maze mostly protected from Metal's occasional strafing run. But generally it favored Tails's far more stealthy approach.

Though taking down Simian would be difficult. He decided to leave him for later and find Fiona and take out all the easy stragglers first. He just hoped he didn't run into Lightning or Scourge Or Miles or anybody he would have to actually try to defeat.

Unfortunately luck had a different choice. As he was jumped from behind and a boot met the back of his head cutting it open. Turning to meet his foe he saw Sergeant Simian bust through the wall to his right and take him through another wall and threw him against the wall he didn't break.

Tails was able to right himself and use the wall as leverage and catapulted himself into the stomach of the colossal ape. Stunning him and quickly swept the feet out from under him and used a chaos charged punch into his gut and then several more right into his face until his body stopped responding to the blows. Then for safety he broke Simian's knees.

Finally he had a moment to breathe and that was quickly taken from him when a steel pipe was smashed into his gut.

"HRK!" Then a second blow followed to his left arm was followed by a sickening crunch. The pipe was swung again but this time he caught it and whirled the person holding it to beat them within an inch of their lives.

Though he got a good enough look he could tell that Fiona had swung the bar, he didn't see her kick him in the stomach and she used that opportunity to get some distance, while unfortunately losing the pipe in the process. But she wasn't alone.

Miles stood behind her smirking to himself. But after she backed off he stepped forward himself with a smug posture about himself that really rubbed Tails the wrong way, or at least more than usual.

"Tell us something Prower. How exactly can you still stand? By all accounts you should be dead. Do keep in mind if you try to run I have my own version of your chaos control." Miles asked, though he wasn't really curious he just needed Fiona to drop her guard.

"It's something you two wouldn't understand, Fiona maybe if you actually care about Scourge at all, but you, Miles, wouldn't understand." Tails answered.

"You're dodging the question."

"My friends and this whole city became infected with this new disease. It's original symptoms seemed identical to that of a common cold. But over time it would change to severely weaken the immune system as a whole. Everyone is sickened to the point they can't move. That's why I faced you all alone, if I die no one can protect them so even if it costs me my life none of you will touch them!"

"How touching, but what if I told you I wasn't your enemy?" Miles answered.

"Miles what are you talking about?" Fiona got her answer when without warning Miles reached out and stabbed her in the chest and she clutched at her now open wound in a vain attempt to close the wound and dropped to her knees.

"Fiona! Miles what the hell did you do?!" Though she was his enemy and had just broke his arm she didn't deserve to die.

"Simple, making your job easier. I've been planning on betraying the two of them for sometime now. I just didn't want to fight them and the Destructix-" Without a warning of his own Tails charged a chaos spear quickly and close enough that Miles wasn't able to dodge but only brace himself. But instead of detonating like usual Tails forced it not to but to keep dragging Miles through several walls, buildings, and debris piles.

Eventual he let it explode only to check on Fiona's condition, but in fear of being found he picked her up with his good arm and used chaos control to warp them somewhat far away from the scene. Into a moderately sized building's lobby that was still standing.

"W-why are…you…h-helping…me." She asked weakly.

'_Why did I help her…why did I bother attacking Miles just to save her? I…I don't know why.'_

"I just acted on instinct, it doesn't matter who they are, if someone is about to die I just act. I don't think. Are you all right?"

"N-no my…heart….I think he got it."

'_I could save her or let her die…she did betray all of us, slap me in the face, and…'_

"Fiona if you had had the opportunity to kill me back there would you have done it? Be honest with me."

"I…intended to…but I couldn't…make myself do it."

'_Man I have to save her.'_

"Here hang on. I'll take you somewhere you'll be able to recover."

"Thank you…Tails."

He then chaos controlled to someone who wasn't bound to be all that happy.

* * *

><p><em>In the Acorn Bunker<em>

* * *

><p>"Tails! Oh thank god you're all right! I thought the next time I'd see you you'd be dead!" Nicole was so relieved to see Tails alive that she almost completely ignored the bleeding fox in his arms.<p>

"Why did you bring her here?" She asked already grabbing equipment to patch Tails up.

To her surprise he denied the medicine and placed Fiona on the bed so she could rest and only asked that Nicole save Fiona.

"Nicole I'm not done out there. There were more of them than we thought. Just the Destructix are out of the way, but Fiona was betrayed and she doesn't have long before she bleeds to death! You have to save her!"

"Why would I-" Tails cut her off.

"This isn't up for debate, I'll explain everything when I get back, and I mean _everything_ please just do this for me please. I don't want blood on my hands and she doesn't deserve to die!"

"But-"

"Nicole! I'm out there fighting to the death to protect everyone in here and buy a little more time so everyone heals. Once they do we win! Just do it!" He was starting to get upset but it went away when Nicole sheepishly looked away and agreed.

"Good and Nicole, this time I won't make it back. Even if my plan works it won't change the odds in my favor much." Just like that he was gone, leaving Nicole worried as hell and on the verge of tears hoping to everything she believed in that Tails would survive this ordeal. It didn't do much to bring her hopes up when Fiona grabbed her hand and told her he would be fine. She could only hope Knuckles got here in time.

* * *

><p><em>Back with Tails<em>

* * *

><p>This was the last battle, beaten but not broken, a useless arm and sheer bravado were all that held back the single most dangerous enemies they had ever fought that were Lightning Lynx, Scourge the Hedgehog, Dr. Eggman, an extremely pissed and lightly battered Miles, and Metal Sonic who all seemed in much better condition than he was in. Eggman hadn't done a single thing and he was already half beaten.<p>

Though nobody would harm his friends, he was willing to admit that this would likely be his last fight. His only hope was to delay the fight for as long as he possibly could and hopefully all of his friends would be well enough to fight them all off.

Scourge and lightning charged together while Miles took to the air to seal off any air escape. Tails waited until Scourge and Lightning were merely inches from him and chaos controlled right into Metal's face and warped them both away before the metal hedgehog could react.

* * *

><p><em>Somewhere Outside the City<em>

* * *

><p>They reappeared deep into the neighboring forest where Metal grabbed and threw Tails away towards one of the nearby trees only for him to chaos control again. Leaving Metal to switch to a scanning mode to find him again only to receive a blow to the back of the head and then another and another, his scans showing only occasional pulses of chaos energy and nothing else.<p>

After a minute of this he switched to a different tactic and brought up his black shield, which Tails bounced off of as it painfully shocked him, in order to get a moment to fully scan the area as well as his opponent.

"**I see now how you can continually abuse you chaos control ability without destroying your body. You're wearing a power ring that you weren't before, when did you get that?" **It was impressive, no one could really compete against chaos control at that level other than Shadow the Hedgehog.

"I don't have to tell you anything, but I do know something about you." Truth be told he couldn't just spam chaos control as much as he was without consequences. Even his chaos enhanced body couldn't handle it for long. That's where the ring came in to play, it would channel the chaos energy through his ring instead of his body, but it still relied on his own power and he couldn't get the power boost that would normally come with carrying a power ring. Though even with the ring he still suffered side effects, just to a much lesser degree. If he survived he would probably be sick for a while.

"**What is it?"**

"Your processor is too slow to detect EMP grenades." As soon as Tails mentioned the EMP grenades Metal's visor changed to one of glee. Though he was hit dead on with the explosions his expression didn't change even as his body shut down and he crumpled to the ground.

It was here Tails made his second mistake and sighed a breath of relief, without warning Metal jumped up and broke both of his tails before using them to throw him back first into a tree cracking and splintering said tree.

"**You are a fool to think I wasn't smart enough to fix the fatal flaw that all machines have." **Here he picked Tails up by his throat and slammed him into the tree again, him coughing up blood on impact as a result and with his good arm desperately trying to pry off the unforgiving metal vice around his throat.

"**My role in this assault was to assist the green one and the lynx in the defeat of Sonic. What you fail to realize…" **Here Metal grabbed the power ring and crushed it into dust.

"**Is that the limits of your own mortality sealed your fate from the beginning. Only the hedgehog has ever defeated me and you stand absolutely no chance." **

"*cough* I knew full well going into this battle that I wouldn't make it out alive." Metal noticed out of the corner of his visor that Tails broken arm was beginning to move again.

"I also know full well that I shouldn't be alive right now. Someone or something saved me." His pressure sensors and hydraulics were beginning to be overloaded by Tails right arm and had grabbed his other arm with his left one, despite how he he had just broken it.

"I have a small secret, when I get beaten on to the verge of death I change." Despite his left arm being broke, Tails was forcing Metal on his knees.

"I relish in staring death in the face and you will have one chance to leave with your life." Quickly and very hard, he kicked Metal square in the visor, cracking it in several places, while yanking back on his arms and tearing them off in the process.

Metal rolled several times and without his arms was unable to roll back onto his feet, leaving him flat on his back. Soon enough Tails pinned him down with his foot and smashed him in the face with his own severed arm.

"Leave and don't come back or I will end you!" Metal weighed his options, he had very limited vision and a severely handicapped fighting ability and Tails seemingly pulled a complete reversal and seemed completely capable of ending him. So he did the smart thing and ran.

* * *

><p><em>Back with the Group<em>

* * *

><p>"Where's your robot Eggman? Tails was crippled and it shouldn't have taken this long." Scourge asked having already waited a whole hour and Metal still wasn't back. He really wanted to have a piece of Tails after what Miles said he did to his squeeze.<p>

"I'm right here and here's your robot." Tails said appearing some distance away and tossing the severed arm of Metal Sonic at the feet of the Doctor.

"What!? Impossible! How did you defeat Metal in your sorry state!?" Eggman all but shouted, only barely holding back his astonishment.

"Oh I didn't defeat Metal, I destroyed him. He ran with his tail between his legs. Now, who's next." He wasn't positive but he was completely positive that when this strength faded he would collapse and wouldn't get up again.

"I'm next you welp! I'm impressed with everything you've done so far but it ends here!" Scourge said having to respect at least what he had done.

But suddenly Tails realized that the last of his strength had left him and he wasn't even able to get off of his knees.

"Well then… end it." Tails rasped out using his hand to gesture towards himself to egg him on further with a big grin in his face, despite being in the worst pain he had ever been in and being unable to get off of his knees. He would accept death with blood-soaked smile on his face.

In the end Scourge hastily accepted the bait and dashed towards Tails like a madman along with Lightning but they were each stopped dead in their tracks with Scourge being launched off to the right, through a window and Lightning straight up into the air by a familiar black and red hedgehog, and a red echidna respectively.

"Sorry I'm late Tails, I got a little help." Knuckles said turning and patting the stunned fox on the back.

"Knuckles! Shadow! Oh thank god you two showed up! I-" Tails began but was cut off by his own body nearly giving out on him in relief, thankfully Knuckles caught him and righted him only to be blindsided by a very strong hug from a very tearful fox.

"I thought I was going to die!" His tears of relief and joy flowed unburdened while Knuckles comforted him as if he was still a small child, but he couldn't bring himself to interrupt.

"Where are the rest of them Tails?" Shadow asked under the impression that the Destructix were here as well.

Tails regained his composure and wiped the tears away from his eyes to address Shadow.

"I took care of them and Metal Sonic, and these guys are all that's left."

"Very impressive Tails, you've done enough, now go and rest. We'll handle these guys." Shadow said.

"No way! I can still fight!" Tails said not content with dumping all of this burden on the shoulders of the two of them.

"Tails listen to us. Just by looking at you my body hurts, you've been fighting too long and too hard. You need-" Knuckles was interrupted by Scourge using his own version of chaos control to drag Tails back into the group of enemies leaving Knuckles and Shadow helpless to help him.

"Listen up." Scourge began, his arm wrapping around Tails's throat tightly, while his other pressed on the back of his head ready to apply pressure. "This little welp has caused a lot of trouble and if you think I'm gonna just let him go that easily you're stupid."

"Let him go!" Knuckles yelled beginning to step forward.

"No and if you take another step closer I'll snap his neck like a twig." Now the situation that seemed like Tails would walk away alive was turning into one where no one would.

"And to show I'm serious…" Scourge let himself drift off as he smashed Tails's already damaged arm over his knee. Making audible crunches as his bones snapped and grinded against each other, stopping Knuckles and Shadow on the spot.

"You really are a monster." Shadow said through his teeth in frustration. If Tails had just left like they said then this wouldn't have happened.

"Oh you bet I am." Here is where Tails, after all of the pain he suffered, finally could stand it no longer and he passed out.

* * *

><p><em>Tails Mindscape<em>

* * *

><p>"<em>Get up you miserable little cretin." <em>

Though a voice was deliberately speaking to him the only response Tails gave him was just fidgeting around a little bit.

"_GET UP!" _This time though the voice was successful in stirring Tails from his sleep with the addition of a boot to the head.

"Uhg…where am I? Why am I wet? Why does my head hurt?" He had a lot of questions that needed answering. Wasn't he just in the middle of the battle of his life?

"_Well for starters, you're in your mind, your subconscious is flooded with pain which is the water, and your head hurts because I kicked you." _The voice said in a bored tone.

"Hey I remember you! Who are you and why are you in my head?" Something was off, he was offered help by this thing, but he seemed odd…

"_I've already told you." _It began, a figure forming in front of Tails that ended up being the spitting image of himself if only with much more ragged fur, much larger claws, and no gloves. All of this and the screaming feeling of instability this mobian emitted everytime it spoke. Like it was always on edge and ready to leap at anything.

"_I am what you were supposed to be. Or rather, all of your inner hatred that was supposed to be who you were." _He said, circling and gesturing to either himself with pride or Tails with disdain.

"If you are part of me then why can I only hear you now? Why haven't you ever tried to contact me before? Pardon me if I'm not shocked at seeing _another _duplicate me. I already met every single version of myself and learned about most of their lives when I saved the universe ten years ago when I transformed into Titan Tails." Tails said, very wary about his apparent inner evil.

"_Because you were still too young and full of hope. Untainted by the hidden knowledge of the evils of those you try so hard to protect. You know full well that not all of the people you are fighting so hard for are innocent. So you recently have been giving me more and more energy and you were just recently wounded and exhausted to the point I could finally break free of the restraints you put on me. I'll be blunt here…" _He had kept up his pacing around Tails the whole speech, referring back and forth to himself and Tails the whole time switching from different emotions, occasionally glaring heatedly giving a very tense feel to the whole room or wherever they were.

"_I am the person you would have been if Sonic had never found you. Instilling in you those pesky feelings about protection, love, and family. It makes me sick. That fool Miles is a good example…perhaps if he wasn't so held back and patient. But I digress, we need to fix the situation at hand. Namely you being used as a hostage." _He stopped pacing and finally began addressing Tails somewhat normally.

"I agree but what can I do at this point? I'm too battered and beaten to do anything. Hey wait…"

He raised a questioning eyebrow, a movement that didn't fit him at all.

"What happened to all that power you had when we first talked?" This thing was nowhere near as strong, he could feel it, almost as if it was a husk of its former self.

"_You have been steadily draining me this entire fight, as you know when beings get as powerful as your so called 'super' and 'hyper' forms, they need to either have a steady energy supply or end the battle quickly. I only have a little of my power left and I have no choice but to give it to you. Keep in mind it will still be far more powerful than what you have ever experienced. Referring to Titan Tails, you were so young and weak then that you could not even begin to comprehend its actual power and limitations. So here, take my hand and end this battle." _He extended his hand and for once didn't seem paranoid and schizophrenic about his actions.

"Not yet. If you could have this at any time why didn't you contact me at the beginning of this battle? You obviously care about my life yet you let me charge suicidal into a fight we both knew full well I wouldn't walk away from? Also how have I been draining you of your power?" There were so many questions this thing needed to answer well before he would accept any gifts.

He smiled darkly. _"As much as I hate to admit it, we are alike in a few ways. Such as our love for battle, our habit to enjoy taunting death, the fact I let you borrow my power when you get pushed to that extreme, and our fondness for that fox. Let's be honest here, we both know you have one hell of a libido and _you,_ not me, were planning on using your little heroism act as a way for , shall we say, intimate moments. I'll say that I have a large fondness for most of the women you hang around with."_

"How dare you say something like that! I ought to-"

"_You've done it before."_

Okay he had done it before, but that raised the question as to how much of his life he knew about. He must have been watching his life play out.

"Okay I admit it, but it wasn't why I saved her. Why didn't you help me a the beginning?"

"_I didn't want to."_

"You still haven't given me any reason to trust you."

"_Well with my power you'll be able to save your friends. With my power you'll live. Do you need any more reasons?"_

"This all seems so convenient. What's the catch?" This kind of deal doesn't just come without consequences, let alone twice.

"_Well for me to give you my power I have to control your body. Before I was just giving you ownership of my some of my power briefly, but if I give you anymore I'll cease to exist. Otherwise I might not make you give me control." _His paranoid tone was back, along with a crooked smile that fit him far too well.

"I…I guess I'll agree. But don't kill anyone!" This thing was obviously unstable and things could go wrong with no restrictions.

"_Great, and one more thing…" _He began, both of them beginning to fade away.

"_I'm not giving control back."_

"What!?"

* * *

><p><em>Back in the Real World<em>

* * *

><p>"Understood? Get on the ground." Scourge ordered, still holding the unconscious Tails as bargaining material.<p>

"It seems we don't have a choice. Do as he says." It was against Knuckles very nature to be submissive, but in this situation he didn't have a choice.

"Good, now Lightning tie em' up. When the kid here wakes up we'll kill them." Scourge was grinning he had beat the two of them as easy as cake and it was so simple. But he wasn't prepared for how far exactly they were ready to risk Tails life.

Just as Lightning got within arm's reach of Shadow and Knuckles, Shadow used chaos control to appear beside Scourge and Knuckles launched himself at the speedy Lynx. They must of forgot that Scourge himself could react at the speed they moved and so he broke Tails's neck.

Or at least he tried before he was hit square in the face by Shadow's roundhouse kick and sent flying because Tails had secretly given them an ok signal to attack. He was secretly restraining his movements by sliding his chin into the groove in Scourge's arm and stopped his neck from violently snapping.

Tails took this opportunity to jump straight in front of Eggman's cockpit and throw a chaos spear that violently exploded creating a small crack in the glass protecting him. Though the blast still rocked the machine onto its back the crack in the glass rapidly fixed itself. Quickly before Eggman could react Tails slammed back into the glass with both of his feet and was about to throw a chaos spear straight into the large crack but was driven off by a big hand swatting him away.

Though Tails, using his recently healed body, was able to right himself and skidded a few feet before stopping. But Miles was waiting and aimed a slash of his claws, attempting to decapitate him, but Tails anticipated it and ducked. Driving a series of powerful punches and kicks into his opponents abdomen and face before jumping away as Miles attempted to detonate an anarchy spear in his face, succeeding to degree.

* * *

><p><em>With Shadow<em>

* * *

><p>Shadow chased after the form of Scourge tumbling away but was surprised when he used a reverse spindash that caught him off guard and smacked into his abdomen sending him back a few feet before batting the incoming green ball away with a smack.<p>

"Chaos control!" Shadow shouted disappearing and leaving a series of small balls around Scourge that he had to use his own anarchy control to escape.

But Shadow kept up the pressure, forcing Scourge to warp away quickly in fear of blowing up into lots of bloody fragments. Eventually Scourge couldn't keep up fighting at this pace and was caught in a series of chaos explosives that bounced him around a few times before being hit square on with a chaos spear. The explosion created a sizable impact crater and sent a smoldering green hedgehog away and laid unresponsive.

Shadow made a move to leave but before he could he was blindsided by a much stronger spindash than before, and then another that sent him into the air where Scourge bounced off the walls to kick Shadow directly into the ground. Leaving a small crater.

"Thanks for the energy boost bucko! Don't you remember chaos doesn't bother me anymore? I'm only green because of it hello!? That explosion hurt though." Scourge said, casually grabbing Shadow by the throat and punching him in the face whilst throwing aside his broken sunglasses.

"Now I'm going to leave you here for now because I have some unfinished business with that little punk who's…hey wait a minute. How can he even use his arm, let alone fight off both Miles and the doctor? How strong did that kid get? Something smells fishy." It didn't make sense, in a one on one fight he could see Tails as a challenge but not the force they brought with them. But somehow he was still kicking and fighting as hard as ever.

"I don't know, but you aren't going anywhere until I can't walk. You see…" Shadow began, slowly bringing himself to his feet.

"I never fight at my full strength. You know this, Sonic knows this, and all my employers know this. You may be stronger right now but you don't stand a chance when I get serious." Though he wouldn't remove his limiter rings yet, he knew that Tails needed as much time as possible to fight Eggman and Miles, Knuckles could handle himself.

* * *

><p><em>With Knuckles<em>

* * *

><p>Knuckles was never one to fight fast, more along the lines of violent and instinctual. Which is why after several failed attempts at even striking the speedy cat became fed up and smashed into the ground with both of his fists into the ground hard enough to severely brake and misplace the terrain around him, yelling as he did so.<p>

This small earthquake like attack was enough to trip up Lightning for just a moment, a moment Knuckles took full advantage of by driving his fist squarely into the cat's face. Watching smugly as the body became a ragdoll when he was launched back.

"Come on that's not all you got! You can hold your own against Sonic for a while…at least until he always beats you." Knuckles taunt worked just like he wanted it to after Lightning shook the cobwebs out of his head and dashed straight at him.

Knuckles threw another haymaker but was surprised when his fist went right through an after image. Almost immediately after did a knee find itself driving into his stomach, but nothing happened. Lightning, greatly confused, jumped back from another punch, glaring at Knuckles and silently demanding an explanation.

"Oh you're wondering why that didn't hurt much? It's because you're stupid Ninjustu fighting style is designed to hit lightly and break the opponents guard. Well buddy I don't have a guard!" Knuckles accentuated his point by charging at a confused Lighting intent on sending him through a building.

* * *

><p><em>With Tails<em>

* * *

><p>Tails was sent reeling by the explosion from his counterpart, rolling away and out of control before he eventually lost enough momentum to right himself. Before he could get to his feet Eggman raised a few compartments on the front of his Mech revealing too many missile silos to count. He fired them and Tails's eyes went wide before taking to the air in an attempt to shake the heat seeking missiles. Though both Miles and Eggman expected this and just as he was about to shake them Miles appeared in front of him too quick for him to react and was punched square in the face turning all of his forward momentum into backward momentum.<p>

Quickly Eggman revealed a much larger hidden silo that launched a single much bigger missile, well more like a rocket. Tails recovered from the blow and shook the stars out of his head and his attention was immediately drawn to the giant missile flying straight at him.

'_It's too fast to dodge!' _Tails thought frightfully, but just before it hit him he had an idea. Just before the missile hit him he moved just enough out of the way that he merely rolled off of the warhead rather than detonating it. But just before it got out of his grip he grabbed one of the tail fins and blew out the engine by using a chaos spear. He then used every amount of strength his tails had and pushed against the rocket around, pointing it square at the two of them.

"Is he going to throw that at us!? Doctor, how big is that payload?" Miles asked somewhat fearfully.

"It doesn't have one anymore, watch this." Eggman was completely calm when he noticed that Tails was directly behind the engine. Pressing a button that was on his console caused the back of the rocket to pop off, revealing another engine about to go off in Tails's face.

Tails's eyes widened and he yelled loudly as the engine ignited directly in his face scorching his torso badly before he chaos controlled away, only just managing to avoid third degree burns on his face. The heat seeking missiles returning and smashing into the rocket creating a very badly choreographed fireworks show.

"Excellent contingency plan Doctor, but where did it come from?" Miles asked, lowering his guard slightly as it seemed Tails wouldn't reappear anytime soon.

"That rat has done something similar before, so I planned for it in case he was actually here." Eggman replied.

"So how did you fit a missile of that size in their?"

"Storage dimension rifts. Infinite space and thousands of rockets and missiles and rockets of several sizes all primed and ready to detonate. All I have to do is select the correct missile silo and away they go!" Eggman explained twirling his mustache and grinning madly as he did so.

"Very impressive, you'll have to show me something like that later. I'd love to keep the anarchy beryls out of Scourge's reach and call upon them whenever I needed them. Now where is he?" Miles raised his guard once again, prepared for the worst.

"Right here."

* * *

><p><em>With Shadow<em>

* * *

><p>The two hedgehogs were engaged in a series of spindashes colliding in the air creating two small sonic booms between them and sending the two of them flying away into buildings, debris, and off the roads into everything and frequently each other and creating loud snapping sounds everytime they parted.<p>

It became a battle of endurance to see who would lose stability first and in the end the both of them did and both of them smashed their skulls together into very vicious head-butts that left both of them heavily bleeding from their forehead and heavily dazed.

His brain rattled and most likely with a concussion Scourge threw his own health to the wind and dashed into Shadow sending him flying and, still dazed, was unable to right himself and smacked back first into a building where just as he was falling down was smashed again by Scourge who at this point may have been in no better condition as he could no longer make himself stand and Shadow lied mostly unresponsive only attempting to force himself to his feet.

Shadow, having no other option, was forced to try and remove his limiter rings seeing no way the fight could continue for either of them. But Scourge put a stop to it by stomping on his hand, his relative dizziness the only thing bothering him as the adrenaline of a good fight pushed the pain from his mind, at least for now.

"No, that's not happening. Now I'm finished with you. I'll let you live so I can finish the rest of you in front of each other. Trust me it'll be great." What Scourge failed to notice was that Shadow was capable of a very powerful attack.

"Chaos blast!" Suddenly Scourge was sent reeling and smoldering away and Shadow took a moment to rest. Before a very bad realization struck him, was Scourge capable of absorbing all the damage from his chaos blast?

With this frightening realization Shadow forced himself to his weak feet only to have his eyes widen in horror, Scourge was up and looked no worse for wear then when they started. Quickly before he could react Shadow removed his limiter rings but in his haste ignored that Scourge appeared behind him and now he suddenly felt very faint.

Before his vision faded to black he could hear Scourge laughing at him and thanking him for the refill and that he was going to go kill all of his friends.

* * *

><p><em>With Tails<em>

* * *

><p>Just as Miles turned, Tails fired a chaos spear over his head and nailed Eggman in the dome and cracking it. Then in quick succession Miles was hit with two very powerful chaos spears that sent his body flying into Eggman's dome. Then before he knew it his hand was suddenly on fire.<p>

Tails had pinned his hand, and by extension him, to the dome of Eggman and had pinned Eggman himself down as well holding both of them in place, with only his chaos spears that wouldn't detonate.

"You aren't going anywhere. This ends now." Out of the corner of his eye Tails saw that Knuckles was about to deliver the finishing blow to Lightning Lynx. He assumed Shadow was finishing up Scourge now. But it gave him a devious idea.

"Knuckles! Toss him here!" Obligingly Knuckles did so, while smiling.

"You are going to wish you never raised you hand against me." Lightning Lynx spat out.

"Eat me." Then Tails grabbed a still standing building and revved up his tails to an insane degree while using the other hand to choke out the lynx.

Miles was in fear for his very life there was no way this attack wouldn't kill him. The chaos spear embedded in his hand wouldn't give even an inch. There was no way for him to escape, unless…

Tails then rocketed off towards the two using Lightning as a battering ram, but just before he reached them the chaos spear holding Miles dissipated and he leapt out of the way just mere moments before his oncoming doom.

Fortunately Tails had more than enough momentum to go through Eggman's cockpit, the building behind him, and tumble himself for a few hundred feet. Rubbing more and more dirt into his already bloody body.

Somehow Lightning seemed to survive, as evidence by his occasional spasm, and the pod racing away seemed to show that Doctor Eggman had survived as well. When he tried to move Tails noticed that he had really overdone it and could barely get his body to respond to him.

"I went way overboard and didn't kill anyone. What a pity. I'll just have to make it up by doing away with those two instead." When he took a step forward Tails was disappointed to learn that he would have to limp or fly back, so he flew back into town square where both Scourge and Miles were standing, the latter apparently having found some bandages to wrap up his hand. But what drew his attention much quicker was the fact that both Shadow and Knuckles had been knocked unconscious.

"So it's just the three of us now. Wonderful." Despite the ridiculous odds he was still ecstatic about the upcoming battle and showed it by wiping the blood from his face and wiping away the dirt off of his torso burn. Luckily the nerves had been burnt and it didn't hurt, third degree burns were nice like that.

"You don't stand a chance. I beat both of these fools into submission and your next!" Scourge said pointing at both of his rescuers, not so much anymore. It seemed nothing would work out today and everything would rely on him.

After his outburst the skies themselves reacted to the upcoming duel and it began down pouring heavily on the three fighters. Matting down their fur and wiping away the dirties of battle.

"How fitting for a fight like this." Almost as if on cue a lightning strike landed right behind Tails and blackened his entire front half illuminating his eyes and nothing else. Though the same happened to the two on the other side as well, nature itself was acknowledging today's battle with an accepting finale.

"Before we start kid, answer me a few questions." Scourge asked, having had a few nitpicks ever since this whole thing had started.

"What is it?" Unlike the other two, Tails had several open wounds on his person and the rain only made him soaked in his own blood. Giving his fur a redder hue.

"Where is everyone else? Why were you the only one that showed up to fight us? I was expecting an all-out battle royal here and instead I get you. Who against all odds should be dead several times over. Why aren't you intimidated? You seem different than before." Scourge was very curious, he knew where everyone was but he didn't know why.

But at his last question Tails smiled darkly. "So you noticed? How much else have you noticed?" He answered, deliberately ignoring the rest of the questions and stepping forward.

"Have you noticed how no matter what injuries I sustain none of you can keep me down?" He continued asking while stepping forward, and something instinctual made the two of them step back, at this point they both knew something was horribly wrong.

"Have you noticed how you brutally broke my arm and yet I can use it unhindered?" He continued stepping forward and Miles and Scourge threw up their guard and took another step back, and then another.

They both looked at each other and despite their differences and quarrels decided to put them behind them. Neither one like the other but something was worrying them. They jumped apart and attempted to overwhelm Tails by attacking from different fronts.

With Miles sealing off the air and Scourge on the ground he didn't have the luxury to split them up again, he'd done it too many times for them to fall for it. He couldn't abuse his chaos powers anymore, his energy levels were too low for him to reasonable do anything with it other than fly. But before they could really attack Tails stopped them.

"Is that a warp ring on your wrist?" He asked.

Confused, Scourge glanced at his said wrist and looked back still confused but more curious. "Yeah why?"

'_Oh that gives me such a devious idea. I think my world has had enough punishment today, let's have a change of scenery eh?'_

"Do you have a way to get back to your world without it?"

Miles answered for him, as Scourge was unsure of how exactly dimension hopping worked in the first place. "Yes, there are several ways if you know where to look."

"Good, you'll need it." Tails then disappeared behind Miles in a flash of green and attempted to strike him, hitting only empty air as Miles disappeared in his own flash of green and struck Tails in the back instead with an anarchy spear.

The spear carried Tails several feet before the explosion sent him flying farther, rolling in the ground before standing again only to be blindsided by Scourge several times before smacking him away with his tails.

"I think you'll understand by now that that little trick won't work anymore. A surprise is only a surprise for so long Prower." Miles said, gloating the whole time he was lowering himself to the ground.

The series of blows had left him fairly battered and more bloody then before, it was even more obvious that Tails would not be able to continue his battle for long. Scourge was basically fresh and Miles was fine, not great but he was managing.

"Well, then is this…surprising?" Tails said, holding up the warp ring he had pilfered from Scourge. Grinning hugely the whole time.

"Now the way I see it we have two options here. But answer me this first. How many people are over in your world could drive me out of it?" Tails thought he finally had an edge on the two of them, he had been at a disadvantage the whole day and now the tables had finally turned.

"There are a few, and if you set foot in that world you won't leave. Honestly, you should know that." Miles answered, knowing full well Tails could barely stand let alone demolish a full city like he was intending.

"That was what I was hoping not to hear." He said, his grin disappearing as his arm flopped to his side only just clutching onto the ring to stop its activation.

'_I guess I don't immediately have all of his attributes like I thought I would. No matter this battle is almost over'._

"Well today's been fun kid, but it seems you're finally running out of juice. But before I end you and your pathetic little existence, where's Fiona?" He may be evil, but he knew Fiona had plenty of uses left and throwing away something that useful had consequences.

"Her? Well I wouldn't hold much hope for her after what Miles did. Even though she is being taken care of she'll probably still die." Maybe he could still fight if he could open an opportunity.

"Hmph, oh well." Scourge charged again only to be stopped and diverted by a blue blur.

"You! I guess it was only a matter of time before you showed up! Scourge we have to leave, the rest can't be far behind!" Miles shouted, quickly retreating to the side of his hated ally.

Scourge had weighed his options if Sonic showed up long ago, he would defeat him like he had his more powerful duplicate.

"As if! Blue's mine! I'll take payback for my girl on your girl Blue. I've been waiting on this all day!" Scourge said, bracing himself for a real battle.

"I know what you're talking about Scourge, I want to know what happened too but I think it's time to juice!" Sonic said charging up a quick spindash that led Scourge and him throughout the battle tested city.

"Do what you want, I'm leaving." Miles said, not confident in his ability to fight every freedom fighter even if Sonic lost. Scourge would be fairly beaten.

"You aren't going anywhere." Tails said throwing several chaos spears at Mile's direction, though everyone of them missed his vision was completely worthless with the debris and smoke that raised up.

Taking to the sky, Miles began to scan the battlefield only able to spot Sonic and Scourge's speedy battle, the two of them creating similar shockwaves that the previous hedgehog battle had created. Though his attention was diverted to dodging a chaos spear which allowed Tails to close the distance and engage him in hand to hand.

Though what Tails wasn't expecting was Miles being relatively inept when it came to physical combat, most of his moves were easily readable and countered fairly easily and with a particularly vicious head-butt that stunned Miles long enough for Tails to grab one of his tails and swing him around and directly into a building.

Here is where Tails made his last mistake, he charged intent on finishing his battle with Miles when he unexpectedly anarchy controlled directly in front of him and punched straight through his sternum. The two of them stayed like this just soaking in the result of their scuffle.

"I applaud you…Miles. You defeated me, but you haven't killed me." All of a sudden Miles felt an iron clad grip on his hand and was unable to remove himself from the recently created hole in Tails's chest.

While Miles's attention was diverted Tails elbowed him in the face, sending him reeling and pulling his hand out with an audible pop. One more time he punched Miles to stun him long enough to throw him, with all that was left of his might, straight into the ground. Then while he was dazed Tails moved as much chaos energy into his hand that he could.

Soon enough his hand was literally glowing green as his arm shook with the effort to keep it stable. Tails then threw it straight into the ground and it grew in size almost immediately to at least five times bigger than himself. At this point, instead of a spear, it more resembled an extremely unstable bomb. It had grown in size to the point that Scourge and Sonic stopped their duel to see it. Gawking long enough for Scourge to get in a cheap shot.

But Miles realized what was upon him and layered his hands with anarchy so he wouldn't be obliterated and stopped the ball from exploding, but could do little else. Now Tails was extremely exhausted at this point and if this next plan failed he would have to rely on Sonic. Tails yelled and charged straight into his chaos ball, vanishing inside, to reappear directly in Miles face to hit him hard enough in his wide eyed face to break his nose.

Now Miles had destabilized the ball and the both of them were sent flying by its explosion, interrupting the two hedgehogs battle by smashing into several debris piles and through at least one building.

"Tails!" Sonic shouted completely forgetting his battle at hand in fear for his best friend.

"Hey! get back here and fight me!" Scourge shouted while chasing after Sonic.

When the blue blur arrived at the scene his breath stopped, he wasn't sure which of the two of them were standing, only that the more seriously wounded one seemed to be glaring at him. He tensed himself for a fight from both of them.

'_All right he's down, all of these fools are resilient I'll give them that. But I don't think I can keep this body alive and fighting at the same time…'_

Tails made a move to speak but only froze and collapsed under his own weight. His body finally demanding he stop.

"Tails!" Sonic said, dashing forward to stop him from splattering himself on the concrete.

"Come on man! Speak up! Tails you better not die on me!" Sonic almost shouted, tears routing towards his eyes. He had finally got here and was about to save him and this happens, he was a terrible big brother.

"Sonic-" A familiar female voice shouted but cut off as she took in the sight in front of her.

"Sally get out of my way! I have to take him to Nicole!" He shouted, turning into his famous blue blur.

"Sally gurl! Where's he goin'? Where's Tails?" Bunnie said in her southern accent. Concern marking her features.

"Oh god…we might have been too late…"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Cut, wrap, and print. This is much bigger than most of my stuff and it's all one big fight. I decided to go with this over the other version that didn't really make any sense. Regardless though, I am very happy with this version.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Believe it or not I have something even bigger in store than the last chapter. Yes, bigger than ten thousand words of pure fight scenes, though it won't be as long, it will be better! That's the biggest one I've ever written. But you don't care about me do you? You just want to see the story, the like six of you that do.**

* * *

><p>It had been a few hours since Sonic had brought Tails to Nicole so she could save his life. Just the thought he would die kept Sonic pacing back and forth since the beginning of the operation. Sally had showed up some time ago and could not for the life of her could get him to relax, though she wasn't relaxed at all either. The fact that Shadow and Knuckles were both being treated was no help either.<p>

"Sonic? Are you all right? Tails wouldn't want you to worry yourself sick." Sally said, trying to get some kind of response out of him. He even refused medical treatment because he was so worried.

"I know he wouldn't and I think the same way. But you and I both know that he would do the same thing." Sonic countered, continuing his pacing throughout.

"Yeah, you're right. He'll be fine Sonic, if he held them off for a whole day he'll pull through this. I know he will." She said attempting to comfort him and herself.

Sonic sighed heavily, running a gloved hand through his quills in order to relax himself, finally he chose to stop pacing and placed himself on the seat next to Sally.

"That's true, hey Sal can I ask you a question?" He asked, unsure if his decision was the right one.

"Of course Sonic, what is it?"

"Well I…I uh, don't want to leave in case Tails gets done with surgery. But I want to go and talk to Fiona, you know, so I can figure out why she was even brought in here in the first place." He was worried definitely, but he really had to know why she was here." Nicole didn't know and he couldn't just go waltz in to a surgery in progress and ask.

"Fiona? Oh jeez, I completely forgot about her. I need to post some guards outside her room. I believe she's in room twelve. But I don't know if she's even coherent." She said, having done something similar to Sonic when she dropped everything else and came here. Though she would have to leave soon for damage control.

"All right…I'm still going to wait until Tails surgery is done-" Sonic was interrupted by a very relieved looking Nicole.

Immediately Sonic and Sally were asking her questions relating to Tails health. "He's fine you two, just exhausted."

"That's great news but how? He had a freaking hole in his chest." Sonic asked, relieved immensely.

"We were pretty surprised too, what took most of the time was the hole. Most of his sternum was gone so we had to get a graft until we can put a replacement in. Other than that he didn't need anything else. He just needed a patch job on all of his other wounds and he was good. Though he's lost a lot of blood so he could be out a while."

"That's a relief, can we see him?" Sally asked.

"Unfortunately no, he's still completely out of it. But he is alive and because of that we can all rest easy." Nicole answered, having to crush her hopes of seeing him.

"Well if we can't see him then I have some unfinished business to attend to." Sonic answered before walking off to room twelve.

It turns out that room twelve was on the other side of the hospital. Not very far by Sonic's standards but still a lengthy walk. He followed the signs that eventually lead back to the lobby that listed the room numbers on each floor. It was creepy seeing as how the usually well-staffed hospital was working on a skeleton crew in the middle of the day. It turns out Tails's cure doesn't work very fast for some people, for those people it barely worked at all, but it did thankfully.

Eventually he found himself outside Fiona's room and suddenly he found himself feeling nervous. But he pushed those thoughts out of his head and opened the door to find Fiona happily snoring away in her hospital gown. The sight brought a sweat drop to his face.

'_Seems she's recovered, better wake her up.' _

Out of curiosity, Sonic checked the clipboard hanging on the railing at the foot of the bed. Everything seemed to check out until he got to the bottom. Still looking at the clipboard in slight wonder, Sonic lightly shook Fiona awake. Listening as her snoring broke and she wined like a small child the first day of school.

"What *yawn* do you want? I'm supposed to get as much rest as my body will let me." Fiona asked, rubbing the crust out of her eyes and raising the mechanical bed so that she was at least eye level with the, now sitting, hedgehog.

"Nothing much, but do you really need a full on heart transplant like it says here?" Sonic asked, pointing out the spot it said on the paper.

"Yeah I do, Miles's is a total prick. Is that all you wanted to know?"

"No, I want to know a few more things. Like first off, why were you here in the first place?"

"What the hospital? Tails-" He cut her off.

"No, I mean why were you even on Mobius in the first place?"

"Promise you won't get mad at me? Arguments raise my blood pressure and turn the few days my heart has left, into hours."

"Depends."

"Well…the bad blood between Miles and Scourge was reaching a boiling point but Miles couldn't do anything about it because Scourge had the entire Destructix on his side, including me, and he couldn't convince anyone of the old suppression squad to help him." Fiona began. Having to pause from long winded speeches as even those wore her out.

"All right. I got that, but why would that make me mad?"

"I'm getting to that. So at this point Miles was powerless, but just a few days ago Eggman gave us a call for a team up. Scourge hastily accepted and forced Miles to come along with us. I'm surprised he didn't do what he did to me earlier. So after Tails brought a couple of _buildings _down on us we all got separated. Miles found me and we found Tails."

"Ok, starting to get a little upset. At Tails, not you. Though I guess it bought him enough time for the rest of us to heal and get out there. Go on."

But instead of continuing Fiona shook her head. "That's pretty much it. Other than me attacking Tails with a steel pipe and Miles stabbing me that's it."

Sonic sighed, trying not to get physical with the person next to him and control his more violent instincts. Funny though, usually he always acted on those instincts.

"I was kinda hoping that you didn't attack him before he saved you. I'm gonna be honest here. If you did that to me I would probably have let you die. Tails is more of a mobian than me when it comes to that sense." Sonic answered without shame, he wasn't one to dance around the question.

"You know, while I was watching him fight, I thought he had really grown up. But after he risked his life to save me I knew he was just the same kid in an adult body. Thinking and acting the way he was yesterday is what's going to get him killed one day. Hey, he isn't dead is he?" While she was alone in the hospital to recover, she had a lot of things to think about. Now she had someone to discuss them with.

"No he isn't dead. What do you care though?"

"I wanted to thank him. I also realized something, From what you said Tails not only lost, but he was beaten within an inch of his life. I came clean to him before he brought me here and told him that I came at him with the intent to kill him, but I couldn't even imagine myself doing it. I realized that I'm not like those guys at all…" She had to pause again because a sensation of breathlessness hit her like a truck. Fortunately there was an oxygen mask for her to get her breath again.

"I don't have much time left to talk Sonic so I'll make this quick. Do you think I could get a second chance?" It was a long shot, yeah but it wasn't impossible.

This caused Sonic to look at her and stare at her as if he was appalled just by the question. But he looked away and seemed to actually ponder the decision.

"Well Fiona that isn't my choice, the others besides me have to say yes. But I say no, I don't know about the others, Tails might say yes but I don't know. See ya."

"Well thanks for being honest." With those parting words, Sonic left Fiona back to her own devices and decided to turn on the news to hopefully catch the carnage that Tails's battle had created.

* * *

><p><em>One Week Later<em>

* * *

><p>Sonic had kept the fact Fiona wanted a second chance with all of them a secret until Tails was better and they could have an official vote on it, because she had just had a full heart transplant the day before, and he wanted to give her plenty of rest before any real questioning began.<p>

For some reason, even though he was fully awake and was nearly fully recovered, Tails hadn't seen anyone of his friends. Though they all had tried at one point, well several, but Tails was allowed no visitors at his own request. Rumors had gone around that Sonic had grabbed Tails's moebian counterpart instead but it was recently silenced by Nicole performing a DNA test and it came out that, yes it was Tails in the hospital. He just refused to let anyone see him.

But that was the past, this is the present. Though this present involved a very frustrated Sonic attempting to see his hospitalized friend, to little success.

"Come on, why can't I go see him?" Sonic asked, beyond the point of annoyed.

"Because, it's policy to adhere to the wishes of the patient. Considering what this particular patient is in here for, I believe we will adhere to his wishes particularly strong. He does not want visitors, though if it makes it any better he's getting released today." No sooner did the mouse receptionist finish, did the very subject of the discussion wander into the lobby, casually watching as a hospital security guard was stopping the mob of people at the entrance.

He glanced around the lobby, as if surveying it, and his eyes stopped on Sonic for a moment before walking towards him as a small smirk played his features.

"Well, it looks like my savior is here. How's the recovery on the city going? I heard about it on the news I was unfortunately only able to watch." Tails said.

But instead of answering, Sonic wrapped an arm around his friend, beginning to lead him to a backdoor to avoid his fans. His beaming smile showing how excited he was to see him again.

"Pretty good, I talked to Fiona a week ago and she told me most of what you did. Shadow and Knuckles filled in a little more, but all of us are still amazed how you pulled it off. So, how did you do it?" He asked, opening the back exit absentmindedly. This was something he had to do a lot back in the day.

But Tails did not answer him, gazing at his hands as they clenched and unclenched nothing but air. Smiling brightly and quickly hiding it, only for it to reemerge again seconds later.

"Yo Tails? I'm talking to you, are you in there?" Sonic asked, snapping his fingers in front of his face, removing his arm in the process. Bringing him back to the world with a surprised jerk.

"Pardon me, I'm kind of just as surprised as you that I pulled out of this alive. The way I see it, they saw that it was just me and heavily underestimated what I could do. Once Miles and Scourge realized that they need to stop playing around…well I started getting my ass handed to me because by that point I was exhausted." Tails breathed a sigh of relief, extremely glad that the whole ordeal was over.

"Well that's what most of us figured but it doesn't make it any less amazing. We're here." The 'here' Sonic referred to was the Acorn Castle, it's relative hugeness and lavishness making the both of them feel miniscule in comparison. Regardless of how easy both of them could bring the building down.

"There hopefully isn't some sort of welcome home party waiting for me is there? I'm not in the mood for something so ridiculous." Tails said, harshness in his tone that was clearly picked up by Sonic. But was brushed off as him never being a party goer.

"Of course there isn't." Sonic reassured as they approached the entrance, the guards noticing the entrants and happily opened the door.

"Are you lying?" He said as the doors opened.

"Yes." Sonic answered. He knew full well where and when the party was, he was the delivery boy.

The doors fully opened, revealing the entirety of the freedom fighters in the ballroom. The room was silent as the two of them walked in, only with the place returning to normal once the massive doors were shut. Quickly Tails found himself drowning is a sea of thanks and pats on the back, as well as handshakes, hugs, and kisses on the cheek form the more confident women. More than one of those women had the room number he would sleep in that night whispered into their ear as they walked away.

All of the faces of his actual friends, those he actually performed missions with, were lost as they were far too spread out to remember where they were. After what seemed like hours of his patience being driven to the breaking point, his savior came in the form of Sally Acorn stepping up to a microphone and getting everyone's attention.

"While I'm sure that everybody here wants to personally thank Tails for his actions not long ago, keep in mind he has only just been released from the hospital. So I would like for him to come up here to accept an award please." She said into the microphone, the room darkening as a spotlight homed right in on where he was standing. Applause ringing out, almost deafening, while he stood there slightly glaring.

The applause slowly died down as it was obvious he wouldn't be moving. "What's the matter Tails? You're supposed to come up here!" She said. Eventually he conceded and vanished in a flash of green and reappeared in the same flash next to Sally. The action bringing about more applause by close to over ten thousand people.

"As acting Queen of the Acorn Kingdom, I am well within the right to offer you this very prestigious award. The Acorn Medal of Honor!" Sally said, ringing out even louder applause as Antoine D' Coolette appeared with the gold star shaped medal on a very lavish, red, velvet pillow with gold trimmings.

The applause didn't die down even after Tails accepted the medal, they only got louder and made his head hurt to the point he couldn't be quiet about it.

"Would you all kindly shut the hell up? Do you have any idea how loud you are? I have a pounding headache and it physically hurts to be here." Tails said directly into the microphone. Just as he wished, the applause and noise died down almost immediately with most of them getting the picture and remembering how he had only just been released from the hospital's ICU only an hour ago.

"Thank you, even though this is a prestigious award, and if memory serves me only five other people have gotten this award, I really don't care about it so Sally you can have it. I honestly don't care about any of this, I can't even make myself fake it." His words had struck a particular nerve with his self-appointed aunt whether or on purpose he didn't really care either way.

"You don't care about any of this? That is the most inconsiderate thing I have ever heard! I don't really care what you want, you take this award and you like it!" Murmurs of confusion spread throughout the crowd as the medal was thrust back into Tails's face.

The crowd watched in stunned silence as Tails's expression turned to slight anger as he smacked the medal right out of her hands and onto the floor. Sally's shocked face did nothing as Tails addressed her, and to a lesser extent the audience with the microphone picking up every word.

"Guess what? I don't care jack shit about what you think. Try and tell me what I like again and you'll be sorry. I'm done here." Tails said as he walked out of the ballroom leaving everyone silent and confused.

* * *

><p><em>Later<em>

* * *

><p>"Where is he?" Sally said visibly fuming as Sonic tried desperately to calm her down from Tails's stunt earlier.<p>

"Listen Sal, it's not his fault. He just got released from the hospital today, we probably just sprung this on him when he didn't have the energy to do it. I know I wouldn't." Sonic said, desperately trying to defend him from Sally's wrath.

"I don't care. He didn't have to be such a jerk about it!" Nothing would stop her from unleashing her anger on Tails, not even Sonic.

"But Sal-" Sonic began, attempting to reason with his very angry fiancé.

"No buts Sonic. Here he is, Tails open up this door right now!" Sally almost shouted, barely stopping herself from kicking his door in.

"What do you want?" Tails said, opening the door and staring daggers at her. He was not in the mood for something this trivial.

A few extremely tense moments passed where Sally simply stared at Tails like she was trying to shoot lasers from them. Tails responded with the same gusto while poor Sonic was simply left scuffing at the lush carpet with his shoes.

"Well?" She began.

"Well what?" He answered.

"My apology? I want an apology right now because of how you treated me up there. All I was trying to do was honor you and thank for what you did for all of us and then you treated me like that!"

Tails just stared at her, completely unmoved by her rant. "Leave me alone." He growled out before slamming the door in her face.

Sally was taken aback, staring at the door with a stunned look on her face. Eventually she tore herself away from the door and stomped off. Barely even glancing at Sonic as she walked past. Leaving him to cast a longing glance at the door before walking away.

* * *

><p><em>One Week Later<em>

* * *

><p>A week passed and Sonic had noticed a fairly drastic attitude change in his best friend, in fact everybody noticed it, and nobody liked it. He was acting very distant and whenever someone would try and talk to him he would either ignore them or be a bit of a hardass.<p>

That was the case, until Sonic brought up the meeting involving Fiona's second chance to Tails in hopes of getting a conversation out of him. It worked to an extent.

"Really now?" Tails asked, stopping and turning around to face Sonic with his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Yeah, I'm going to bring it up everybody later today. You might have to be there." Sonic responded, crossing his own arms.

"Well I'll be sure to be there then. I was actually on my way to speak to her now as a matter of fact. Heard she's due to be released soon so I thought I'd drop her a visit." When Tails finished speaking his plans Sonic was unable to keep a small grin off of his face.

"Figures, I knew you hadn't changed. Anything that involves her you want to be a part of…" Sonic finished, leaving his last words hanging for effect.

"Hey can I ask you a question Tails?"

"Depends what it is."

"Why have you been avoiding everybody? Better yet, how come you won't talk to anybody?" Sonic asked, casting a slightly concerned look at him.

"I don't want to talk to them. Is that hard to figure out?"

"C'mon man, I stuck up for you when Sally was going to chew you out. The least you could do is tell me what's eating you up." Sonic asked, almost begging, while placing a comforting hand on Tails's shoulder.

Not all surprisingly, Tails shrugged off Sonic's arm and question, turning and disappearing down the neighboring hall.

'_Why won't you talk to me…'_

* * *

><p><em>At the Hospital<em>

* * *

><p>"Room number three-oh-two. She must be a lucky lady to have you come visit her if I have to say so myself." Said the slightly star struck raccoon receptionist when she saw Tails enter the hospital. She, like many other women, had come to worship the ground he walked on ever since he defended the city single handedly.<p>

Tails grinned a little bit before he buried it in a, not too convincing, façade of indifference. "She is a lucky girl, I saved her myself during the attack. You aren't the first person to look at me like that today either miss…I haven't caught your name actually, may you humble me with it?"

"Jenny, it's Jenny. Could I ask you a question before you leave?" The newly name Jenny said.

"What is it?"

"My shift is over in three hours, would you like to kill a little time with me?" She asked, suggestively waggling her eyebrows.

Tails raised an eyebrow himself and fought down his massive grin with great effort. Jenny was fairly attractive, slim, big tits, a nice round face with very kissable lips, and fur that shined. Yeah, he could kill some time with her.

"Sure, I'll meet you at Knuckle's bar at ten. Have fun looking toward that." He was here for a reason unfortunately, and Tails managed to pry himself from the very…_flirtatious _receptionist, and make his way towards room three hundred and two.

Once there he didn't bother knocking on the door and just let himself in to the small surprise of the red furred vixen inside. She set her pudding down on the tray beside her and hit mute on the television before a small smile found its way to her lips.

"Well, if it isn't the city's hero. Pray tell, why he so graces me with his presence?" Fiona said, a giggle nearly working its way out.

"If memory serves me, this hero is your savior as well." Tails answered, playing along with a smirk on his face.

"Well that may be, but I'm more concerned with the city's hero tarnishing his reputation by speaking to me. You must leave before you are spotted." Fiona said with an over exaggerated wave of her arms.

"This hero cares little for his reputation, only for your well-being my queen." Tails said, kneeling down and taking her hand in his in a ridiculous fashion.

"I'm a queen now?"

"To me you are."

"Aren't you sweet, your queen orders you to hug her."

"Gladly milady."

The embrace lasted for but a moment before Fiona began giggling and they separated.

"Boy Tails, you're something aren't you?" She said, her laughter dying down.

"I aim to please. So, down to business."

"C'mon, I haven't had any body to screw around with since I got here. Let's bullshit a little bit." Fiona asked, pretending to pout like a child denied an expensive as fuck toy.

Tails rolled his eyes and pulled up a chair before relaxing in it. "Sorry, I don't have too much free time today. I've got a date at ten, well more like a booty call. A materials meeting at six. Then after that we have to decide whether or not to let you back in. Plus it's already four, got a busy evening."

"All right, so why are you here? Going to drag me behind a dumpster and pull the trigger or what?"

"Give me some credit, I came here to see how you were holding up. Then when you got released tomorrow I was going to take you to dinner, show you some of the stuff you've missed this last decade."

"Sounds to me like you've got a lot of plans for little old me. What makes you so confident they won't burn me at the stake?"

"Oh just that I saved their lives and my opinion is probably going to hold a lot of power in a lot of future plans."

"I appreciate your nice words and big plans, but Sonic already told me his answer when I asked him and it was 'no'. So forgive me for not having all that much confidence in my future." Fiona wouldn't look into his eyes no matter how much she wanted to. It was pretty obvious to nearly everybody that she would end up in prison.

"Look at me." Tails sternly said.

Expectedly she looked back at him with a barely noticeable defeated look; a look he planned on erasing from her mind.

"I care about you, I saved their lives from two different threats; you and that fucking plague. If they won't listen I'll turn the public on them. Pretty sure they don't want that. Besides, Nicole seemed all right with you and they'll know that I'm confident about you. So don't worry."

"Well…what about what happened all those years ago? Nearly everybody knows about what happened with me and the freedom fighters all those years ago."

To her credit, that was a large and already established event, but to Tails credit he had a lot of influence at his disposal. Influence he planned on maliciously abusing.

"Fiona c'mon now, If I wanted to I could make you as respected as I am now. Ahem."

Tails got up and straightened an imaginary tie.

"If it wasn't for the brave actions of the deep undercover Fiona Fox, Tails Prower would never have been prepared for the attack and we would be dead as of now. We owe her our lives as much as the Mobian who fought them off." Despite the satire Fiona could tell he was dead serious.

"Tails…you'd do that for me? I…I don't know what to say. That's not even true." She said, deeply touched at his devotion. Had he been like this even after so long?

"Yeah I would, it might not work on some of the freedom fighters. But it would work damn well on the public. Plus-" Tails was surprised when Fiona cut him off with a nearly bone crushing hug. He was also aware of the few damp splotches on his shoulder.

Nothing was said between the two, even after they parted and Fiona had calmed herself down enough to keep her voice level. Eventually though, Fiona had found her voice again.

"Thank you Tails, I mean it too, no one's ever done something like that for me. Not Sonic or Scourge, nobody. I can't wait for dinner tomorrow."

"Neither can I."

The meeting went exactly as Tails said it would, even though originally it went the way Fiona predicted it would go, Tails had flipped the tables on them and reminded them that without him they'd all be dead and that they owed him a _just _a little. He even scheduled the undercover agent message.

After the meeting, Tails had his date with Jenny to look forward too. Turns out she was an egotistical bitch, looking down on every woman that passed by her because she was eating dinner with someone famous. He ended up leaving her with the tab and walking out. Turns out she didn't bring her wallet either.

'_I have standards lady.'_

The next morning Tails was waiting at the lobby, laughing internally at the furious glares that the receptionist sent his way, and waited for the clock to strike twelve for Fiona to be released.

Honestly, her reaction at seeing him there was actually quite surprising to him. She waved, came over and gave him another vice grip hug that he happily returned and winked at him. She then went to the now even more livid receptionist and signed out the Hospital officially.

She walked back over to Tails and intertwined her arm with his and walked out of the hospital, apparently oblivious to the even _more _livid receptionist.

"So, I remember something about dinner?" Fiona asked, simply happy to be a free Mobian again.

"You're right. Where should we go first?"

"I couldn't care less where we go. But I have to go find a decent apartment to stay at."

"I've actually taken care of that, you've got an apartment to stay at. It's my bed at ten-ow." Tails said, rubbing the shoulder she just struck in mock pain. He could see through her fur that her cheeks had tinted themselves slightly pinker than normal.

"Be serious, I actually need a lot of things before we can go to dinner now that I think about it." Fiona said.

"I was serious when I said I got you an apartment, you've got a steady paycheck coming in your name too. Courtesy of the freedom fighters. Congratulation by the way."

"You _really _want to get our date on the way don't you? Do you think I'll be in your bed at ten _that _easily? Give me a little bit of credit here. Besides, I need something other than these clothes, they're too plain." She was right, she was wearing a white t-shirt and jeans. That's pretty bland for a fancy dinner date.

"Well, want to go cash you're first check and by some necessities? I'll get the more expensive stuff because your actual pay is kind of small."

"You're a real gentleman, you're trying so hard to get me in that bed tonight."

"No Fiona I'm not, if I wanted you in my bed it be like _that._" Tails said, snapping his fingers for emphasis.

"A lot of confidence compared to what you used to have. You were hardly able to talk to me when I first joined and look at you now. You playing with people and you do it like a professional."

"Oh god what have I done…" Tails said, placing a hand against his head to steady himself.

"What? What's wrong?" Fiona said worried.

"I've agreed to go shopping with a woman and use my money to pay for most of it. I've got six figures in my account and I'm about to lose it all."

"You dick. I was worried." Fiona said, punching his arm and chuckling.

Fiona showed admirable restraint when it came to getting clothes, unlike every other woman on the planet he had bought stuff for, and was very hesitant about letting Tails buy a flat screen for her. But in the end when they returned to Fiona's apartment, which was fairly under furnished, she had a modest amount of outfits and a much more appealing home to call hers. Sneaky bastard bought furniture to be delivered there too when she wasn't paying attention.

"I appreciate all of this Tails, I really do, but you didn't have too."

Tails held up a hand to stop her. "Fiona if you bought that stuff I bought you today it would have cost six figures. It cost me ten grand for this apartment, the furniture, your clothes, and all your appliances. That is literally what I make in a month. I'm the one who's financially stable and I am perfectly happy doing this for you."

"God Tails you really make it hard to not kiss you."

"I've been told."

"I'll see you in two hours at that restaurant that we passed."

"You sure? I've already dropped a good amount of money on you and you seem kind of hesitant about me dropping anymore. That place is expensive."

"It is? We'll find somewhere else to go then."

"Fiona, I planned on taking you there anyway, it's got the best view and it won't be expensive for me. Like five star food at fast food prices cheap."

"I'll see you there then."

After Tails left he looked at his wristwatch and saw that it was almost four o clock.

'_I better make myself presentable. I suppose I can wait for a little longer. She's definitely worth the wait.'_

An hour later Tails had called the restaurant and made their reservation for two and found himself a decent looking bowtie that didn't look stupid, replaced his normal everyday gloves with fancier special use gloves with his initial embroidered on each, and decided that his shoes were fine. He wasn't changing his shoes, they were too useful and he was confident he'd wear out a normal pair on the walk to the restaurant.

Fiona had told him to meet her at the restaurant and Tails had agreed, so he now found himself outside of the _Davelli Supreme _ with twenty minutes before his date. When he walked in he unfortunately found many pairs of eyes focused on him and his lack of a date. The rules at Davelli's were simple, you had to have a date.

A waiter came up to him and cleared his throat, speaking in a professional manner he said. "My apologies sir, but the rules here state that you must have a date to this establishment and you lack one. I must ask you to leave."

"I know the rules, I'm meeting her here in ten minutes. I had a reservation for the bird's nest table. It should be under Tails Prower."

"I'm aware of who you are and under the circumstances I'll allow you to wait for your date here as a thank you from the establishment instead of requesting you to leave."

"I was planning on waiting in the first place." So he waited, for nearly twenty minutes before he rubbed his hand down his face in a moment of realization.

'_Fuckin' hell, she's probably lost. How long has it been since she's even seen this city like ten-' _Tails thoughts were interrupted by someone tapping on his shoulder and eventually pulling on his arm.

Aggravated Tails turned around ready to tear someone a new one when his train of thinking was completely derailed. It left him standing there with his mouth slightly agape as he stared at the Mobian in front of him.

"Sorry I was late, I got a little lost but the phone you got me had GPS on it so I'm good now. So, like what you see?" Fiona said with a little spin that drew more than Tails's eyes.

Tails took in the sight in front of him. Fiona was wearing a form fitting green dress that sparkled and went all the way down to her ankles. It had a slit up the side so she was almost always showing a little leg. She had made her hair go down her back but left its wavy nature alone. The way she stood and acted made her seem like a professional at making men look stupid, which she was.

"You…you look great." The waiter from earlier didn't give him any more time to compliment her as the two of them were led to their specially reserved table that overlooked the city square.

"Wow, it really is a nice view from up here."

"That's why I reserved it. Oh, I've got a surprise for you after dinner."

"You wouldn't tell me what it is would you?"

"No, you'll have to wait."

The dinner preceded along extremely well, with Tails and Fiona simply content with catching up on the lives they missed out on. It was comforting for Fiona, she was able to talk normally with someone she used to despise and he wasn't shy about talking about the more painful moments of his life. Which meant she had to return the favor by bringing up a few touchy subjects of her own. It was a little hard to believe though, that someone so gentle and loving could be so powerfully monstrous in battle. It just seemed like those two things shouldn't mix. But overall, the date went fine.

"Well it's six, I think that your surprise is almost ready."

"Come on! Tell me what it is already you prick! Dinner's basically over."

"You've got to wait a little bit. I mean you're going to be famous soon…oops." Tails buried his head into his hands once he let his surprise slip.

"Tails…you didn't." Fiona said, not believing that he had done what he promised he'd do. To tell the truth, she had gotten some ill looks from people she had known all those years ago, but they weren't all that awful.

Sure enough ten minutes later the announcement ended and several hundred people began applauding her. It was official, she was famous now and was probably branded a hero at the level Tails is.

"Come on, let's go somewhere a little more private." Fiona said, after she got up and grabbed Tails she nearly dragged him out of the restaurant.

"Were are we going?" Tails asked once they had left the restaurant. The two of them were now walking with their hands intertwined but Tails could feel Fiona's heartbeat through her hand hammering away like crazy. She was apparently nervous about something but he couldn't place it.

Eventually the two of them ended up at Fiona's apartment and Tails had an idea of why she was nervous but he wasn't sure.

"I'm doing this because it's you." She said before making their lips touch and pushing the two of them into the bedroom.

* * *

><p><em>Later (Don't expect me to put that in there with your dirty mind.)<em>

* * *

><p>Tails found himself staring into the mirror at Fiona's apartment, thinking deeply about his future actions and what he had planned them to be.<p>

He wasn't having second thoughts, but he was going to be a little more_ devious_. So with a plan set in motion he went back into the fairly messy bedroom and kissed Fiona's forehead in her sleep. She smiled and it brought a dark grin to his face before he walked out into the wee morning hours of the day fully intent on enacting his plans.

* * *

><p><em>The Acorn Vault<em>

* * *

><p>With a fairly loud explosion of chaos energy Tails blew off the doors to the acorn vault, the location they kept the chaos emeralds, and stepped inside where he quickly placed the emeralds into a briefcase. He could leave right now and be gone without a trace, but he had to send a message. So when the guards ran in he threw a chaos spear into the middle of the group that exploded violently and blew them all towards the wall unconscious or dead.<p>

He then used chaos control to appear outside the castle and pulled a small remote out of the briefcase he was holding. He pressed the button and began walking away and behind him the Acorn castle had half of the building completely destroyed by a foundation shaking explosion.

He had set it up to damage Nicole's sensory abilities once he left the city limits and it worked beautifully. Most likely they knew it was him by now and were attempting to search the castle. As he walked he continued pressing the button and buildings around him were bursting into flames or exploding violently.

He began cackling with glee at the terror he had caused. The destruction of the city he once held dear was like a perfectly orchestrated symphony to his ears now. Suddenly he hesitated before he pressed the button on his remote. Shrugging his shoulders he dropped the remote and stepped on it, breaking it into tiny pieces. He had plans for her and he wanted to watch her suffer rather than just killing her out right.

He had reached the city limits now and only then did he turn to survey the damage. Easily fifty mobians had been killed and hundreds, maybe thousands, were injured. He had taken Fiona shopping yesterday not for her sake, but so he could plant his bombs all over the city without being suspicious.

Eventually, just like he knew they would, the freedom fighters showed up and stared at him with too many mixed expressions for him to tell what the general consensus was. Though shock and betrayal were common ones. Damn near every freedom fighter had showed up to find him and when they did he couldn't help but bust out into an evil laughter that pierced the hearts of everyone around to hear it.

"I suppose I'll be leaving now, my first step is complete and now I need to move on to step two. I bid you adieu my once great friends. But I'll leave you with one last parting gift."

Tails suddenly snapped his fingers and hundreds of chaos spears floated out of the ground and surrounded the freedom fighter group. Unfortunately for them though, nobody in that crowd could manipulate chaos energy at all. Let alone manipulate it enough to either block his attack or dodge it.

"Chaos control." Tails said, as the chaos spears rained down upon the crowd ripping them to pieces and disintegrating and who were near. Before he chaos controlled away Tails sent one maniacal grin to his once closest friend who had arrived moments too late.

* * *

><p><em>One Month Later<em>

* * *

><p>Most of the damage from Tails's attack had been repaired. But that was physical damage, mental damage on the other hand wasn't even beginning to heal. Sonic had isolated himself to his room and even Sally hardly had spoken a word to him. Mainly because she was in disbelief.<p>

Though it was a toss-up between Sonic and Fiona who felt worse. No one knew Tails and Fiona had literally become an item less than a day before Tails betrayed them all. It was driving her mad, he had used her and she couldn't even make herself hate him like she wanted too.

Tails had recently made an open declaration of war to every faction of the freedom fighters on an open radio channel two days ago and if they wanted to stop him they only had to come and get him or else he would roboticize every Mobian on the planet. Everyone was unsure of how to react, well those that were left that is.

No one was too surprised when Sonic came into the meeting room and asked a simple question.

"Where is he?"

"In the mountain ranges twenty miles from here. He's taken up one of Eggman's old bases." Sally answered him.

"The five of us in this room are leaving soon to go confront him." Sally said

"Good." Sonic made a move to leave but Fiona stopped him with a question no one wanted to ask.

"Sonic, if it came to it, could you…kill Tails?"

Sonic didn't move or make any motion to answer her question. His only movements were the enraged tensing and relaxing of his quills.

Suddenly though, Sonic sighed heavily and turned to face the four people in the room he would be assaulting his closest friend with.

"I don't know Fiona. I saw what he did, I watched him kill almost _ten thousand _Mobians. Nearly all of our entire standing freedom fighters are dead. I watched him fucking grin at me when he did it too." Sonic sighed again, leaning heavily against the wall but ultimately sliding down it to sit and cradle his head in his hands.

"He's the closest thing I have left to family. Something about the way he looked at me seemed so horribly wrong I wanted to puke. He enjoyed what he did and that thing is supposed to be my little brother! Now look at him! He's a fucking murderer." Sonic wanted to scream at Fiona, blame her for everything that happened because it was her fault Scourge and Eggman even bothered to show up.

But she told everyone what Tails did to her and he didn't have the heart to bring her down any more than she already was.

"Whatever that thing is it isn't Tails. I know it did something to him and I'll beat the answers out of him!" Sonic lost control of his anger at the end of his tirade and punched the wall hard enough that his hand went straight through.

"Shadow, Knuckles, Sally, and you too Fiona; I want you to stay out of this fight until I tell you otherwise. I will rip him apart and find out what happened to Tails. Come on, we're leaving right now."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So what did you think of that one? Like it? I almost went farther though but I restrained myself because that isn't what this story is about and I think it would have drawn to much attention away from the main plot. It did happen though. The best part though is that none of it was real to that thing. It was real to Fiona though and that may be the worst part.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I think I can safely say that this chapter is the finale, and the epilogue won't be very long unfortunately. Regardless, here is where the shit hits the proverbial fan between the freedom fighters and Tails. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>They were here and they were ready to face what might be their hardest fight they ever had to face. Tails had changed drastically ever since the offensive by all of their enemies at once, no one liked it either. None of them wanted to do this, they despised having to, but Tails's actions had forced their hand.<p>

Even though Tails saw his once friends burst through the door, he knew that they wouldn't attack until he did, which made his plan all the more devious.

"Welcome to my humble abode my friends, make yourselves at home…" There was a pause after Tails gestured to the large open room before crossing his arms and glaring at them. "Unless you haven't taken me up on my offer."

"We'll never take up an offer like that! Roboticizing the whole world Tails? Did everything we fought for for all those years just not matter?" Even though Sonic had made his choice, he refused to not try and get through to his once best friend.

"Roboticizing the world was my original plan yes, but I've changed my mind on that front." Tails answered from his throne.

"Does that mean you'll come back to us?" Sally asked in a tone that sounded more like begging than a question.

Tails tilted his head in a way that seemed like her question had boggled his mind before bursting into laughter. "Funny, no I'll never do that. I've decide to enslave the world instead. Its' much more fun to see despair on Mobian's faces than it is to see it on a robian's face."

"Enslaving the world? What's gotten into you? It's infuriating me not to know what happened to you! I refuse to believe that you're acting under your own free will! None of us believe it!" Sonic was panting slightly after yelling his anger and confusion at Tails.

Tails stared at him darkly until Sonic met his gaze. Rather than looking away Sonic stared right back with all the emotion he could fit into his own gaze. He was looking for something, _anything_ to show Tails was being manipulated.

He didn't find any and that was the last straw.

Snarling with rage, Sonic wound up a spindash strong enough to startle his comrades standing beside him with its intensity.

He didn't care. This whoever wasn't Tails and he refused to believe it was. So with all the anger he could draw from his body he launched himself at Tails and was on top of him in an instant.

He relished the look of shock on the impostor's face and relished the impact even more. The impact was strong enough to knock him into the steel wall and fucking _bounce_ off of it.

But Sonic wasn't giving him any room to breathe and revved up another one that connected even more solidly than his first and it made a little impact dent where Tails's body hit it going faster than the sound barrier.

The hits were enough to clear his vision from the fog of rage that was clouding his mind, but only just. Sonic gazed heatedly at the fox on his knees and only just then did he hear his friends voices behind him yelling something about stopping. Something told him to look at himself and once he did he liked what he saw. He had gotten so riled up he had transformed into his darker super form and had left small gouges in the floor from where he spindashed.

He was going to use this form to wipe the floor with the fox in front of him. But to his surprise Tails got to his feet rather quickly and wiped the blood off of his mouth while glaring heatedly at Sonic with an insane looking grin on his face.

With a snarl of his own Tails charged at Sonic and tackled him through his group and knocked hem over like bowling pins. They all watched flabbergasted as to how Tails was even still able to move let alone stand up to Sonic in his dark form.

As much as it pained them to stand by helplessly, it was obvious to all of them that they couldn't really touch either Tails or Sonic while they were like this, plus Sonic had all but ordered them to stay out of until he told them otherwise. They were all forced to watch until the battle was over.

Whenever the two collided, shockwaves would blast out and carve up the concrete they were standing on. The battle had taken up to the air and the ground and wherever they decided to engage each other.

Eventually Tails got the upper hand when he chaos controlled just before they engaged again and brought both hands down on the back of Sonic's head where his impact dug up the ground where he landed.

Tails landed shortly after panting and looking far worse for wear than Sonic did. Suddenly he addressed the four of them with a grin.

"You all look a little bored over there, why don't you try fighting-" Tails was cut off when Sonic slammed into him again with one of his supercharged spindashes that sent him rolling on the ground and eventually into the wall. This time however he didn't recover nearly as fast as he staggered to his feet and nearly fell over until he caught himself on a nearby pillar.

It was obvious to everyone that Tails was fighting greatly to stay standing. Again Sonic charged up a spindashed that ripped up the ground he stood on and with a deafening yell he charged straight at Tails again.

But Tails didn't move and just before Sonic connected something deep in him told him to stop. Sonic, in his enraged state, didn't listen to that warning and when he was mere inches from Tails something hit him _hard_.

The blow was hard enough to send him rolling back the way came and he felt that whatever hit him was absolutely _overflowing _with chaos energy. So much so that it knocked him out of his dark form as he rolled to a stop in front of his friends, almost unconscious.

"That's it? That's all you can take before you quit? I'd say pathetic but I was just playing around with you earlier and I don't know a word that means less than that." Tails said, his fist still extended

"What…happened? Sonic said groggily only able to stand after Shadow and Knuckles had helped him.

"Tails knocked you _out _of super form. We have to get to those emeralds." Knuckles stated in mild disbelief.

"Hey guys, what happened to Tails?" Fiona pointed out as she was the only one paying much attention to him.

"No way…I didn't think he could still transform." Knuckles said in disbelief, he had only seen Tails transform once and he wasn't sure he still could after what happened.

"What did you say?" Knuckles comment about Tails transforming brought a large implication with it and when Sonic was able to focus on him lo and behold there it was.

Tails was in his old super form with its telltale signs of him positively glowing yellow and his three chaos canaries floating around him with no clear pattern.

"You know Sonic, you were right to disbelieve me as being Tails. I mean he hasn't talked to you since his last stand." He said while walking towards the group that Sonic defended.

"I knew it, what did you do to him! Tell me now!" Sonic had gone back into his dark form with everyone stepping back for them to engage again.

"Is this as strong as you can be hedgehog? Because we both know it isn't nearly enough and you know what I need to use this form."

"That doesn't matter! Where is he!"

"He's dead." Everyone was silent, Sally gasped and Knuckle's and Shadow's jaws tightened in anger. Fiona was confused almost started crying.

Sonic on the other hand, well, did nothing. He simply stared with his face void of emotion until he spoke.

"I don't believe you."

Tails raised an eyebrow in curiosity before shrugging and floating up into the air a good thirty feet. "You don't huh? Doesn't matter, you're all about to die anyway."

"No one's dying on my watch." Sonic said as he floated up to be even with Tails.

"You know you can't win."

"Where is he?"

"You really want to know?"

"Tell me."

"I am Tails, I wasn't kidding earlier. The Tails you all know is dead! I've taken his place! For all I care, all of you as well as him can all burn in hell!" Their argument was over as soon as Tails last word was uttered and once again the two of them clashed in a similar way to before.

Shockwaves that rattled the ground and turned rocks into dust were seen and felt repeatedly as the two mobians collided with blows powerful enough to go straight through lesser ones.

For what felt like eternity they clashed with punches and kicks and spindashes and on the ground the blows were getting stronger and stronger. Their battle had ripped the room to pieces and forced them into the storm outside.

Sonic blocked a chaos spear with his own and soon had to dodge a speeding golden bullet as Tails flew through the clouds at top speed, intent on ripping the hedgehog in half using the smoke clouds as cover for his act. Luckily Sonic still had the speed advantage for the moment, to which he used to its limits, and moved to the side at the last moment, reaching out to grab Tails's hand in the process.

Soon Sonic was swinging Tails around so quickly that the two of them had become a yellow and black blur. Sonic let go of him after some time and Tails flew fast enough to go through the mountain next to them and get stuck in the next one.

Nothing happened for a few moments and Sonic took that time to gather his thoughts and catch his breath.

"Running out of juice…I can't feel the super emeralds anywhere. If I could just find them I could rip that impostor to pieces." Sonic had begun running towards the base that Tails had hidden in as quick as he could. But halfway there he felt an earthquake begin to rattle the ground beneath his feet strong enough to shake the buildings he was passing.

A frightening guttural yell reached Sonic's ears and it stopped him in his tracks because as the yell increased in strength, so did the earthquake. Lightning began striking the ground near him, almost as if the heavens were targeting him with their strikes. The guttural scream reached its peak with a massive explosion at the mountain Sonic had thrown Tails into.

Following the blast, Tails had flew out of the debris at a speed Sonic could barely fathom, even in his current form, and rammed into him with the force of a thousand of his punches. Sonic took in Tails current features and was slightly afraid, Tails's eyes were glowed red as chaos energy poured off of him in the form of steam. Tails pushed him through building after building and eventually threw him into the ground at an even faster pace than before.

Sonic could barely register which direction he was going, all he could fell was the pieces of debris he was making with his own body, dig into his flesh only for the damage to instantly heal and the process would start over again.

Eventually he rolled to a stop and was able to get his bearings. Slowly he got to his feet and shook his head to clear the stars from his vision. He scanned his surroundings looking for any sign of Tails and found none.

"Where are you? You can't hide forever!" Sonic shouted, frantically looking every which way.

"I'm not hiding! Just stay down and die!" Tails shouted.

Upon hearing his voice Sonic looked towards its source and his eyes widened in a mixture of shock and awe. Above his head, into the clouds, Tails was manipulating the lightning around him. It was forming into bolts the way lightning would always strike, and there were so many that were so close, it was almost a wall of lightning.

But instead of throwing it down like he expected, Tails suddenly and quickly drew it all towards his hand and before he knew it Sonic was staring at Tails's crackling body. There had been so much lightning that even after he seemingly absorbed it, his body apparently never stopped crackling with the deadly force.

"Let's hope you can survive this! I'm not done playing with you yet!" Quick as a blink, Tails had darted straight for Sonic and the latter charged right back at him with such a force it created what looked like an impact crater from a decent sized asteroid. So was the strength and rage that flowed through the blue hedgehog and yellow fox.

Again the both of them danced the most dangerous type of dance, only instead of shockwaves forming whenever they clashed electrical vortexes formed around them for a second before exploding and violently electrocuting anything in the area.

This went on and on until one of the vortexes didn't dissipate, it only gained size, velocity, and power until just simply moving demanded total situational awareness for every movement brought hundreds of strikes by nature's blue demon. Trapping them both inside lest they want to be vaporized.

Neither one of them cared, again and again they clashed. Their vicious punches kicks and powers tearing each other apart only to heal instantaneously and start over. Light met dark, rage met rage, hate met hate, each destructive clashed bloated and swelled the poor vortex but it never gave way and reacted just as violently. They were so identical, yet, so different, one fighting to avenge his closest friend and the other to destroy what little his prisoner had left.

But ultimately there had to be a loser and only one had the strength to give it all.

With the lighting vortex still violently existing, despite violating every concept of nature, it drained both fighters to the point of exhaustion.

"Let's finish this!" Tails shouted over there stalemate in the center of their creation.

"I'LL RIP YOU APART!" Sonic shouted back. The darkness he was fighting with taking over his mind completely. In his eyes he was no longer fighting Tails, he was nothing more than a target

Both of the fighters jumped apart as far as they could and charged towards each other with as much of their power as they could into one more blow. This last blow may determine the victor of the battle and only the fastest would win.

For once Sonic, the fastest thing alive, was not the fastest.

"**SONIC!"**

"**TAILS!"**

Just before they hit Tails used his chaos control to close the gap quicker than his foe and used that billionth of a second of surprise to his advantage and hit Sonic square in the face with every piece of power he could squeeze into his fist.

Time stopped for the two of them, the world was not capable of supporting a battle at this level for as long as it had been and it showed. The terrain was destroyed, the constant strikes of lightning and their own shockwaves ripped the ground apart and brought buildings down to nothing but dust and the city was nearly destroyed.

Tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and thunder storms had ripped apart not only their own continent but the world over.

It was complete and utter chaos.

Tails loved every second of it.

With his final blow connecting so powerfully with his opponents face that the bones shattered before he touched them and the air behind him moving before he did resulted in something to powerful to be a shockwave. It was so powerful that it was more akin to an air quake. Tails felt his own eardrums burst, heal, and then burst again before healing.

Sonic flew away so fast that Tails was confident he would fly for minutes before touching down with the force a mountain hitting the earth as an asteroid. His suspicions were proven correct when a few minutes later he saw, felt and heard a sizeable impact explosion.

'_How fitting that he seems to be right on top of his friends. I suppose I can deliver their failure to their feet for them. Do you hear me Tails? Did you like watching that?' _ He wasn't sure if Tails had heard him or even regained consciousness but he didn't have time to check.

'_He is only the first to die by my hands…he will not be the last.' _He began flying off towards the location of Sonic's explosive touchdown. It wasn't hard to find him.

Once he was there, Tails couldn't keep the grin off of his face at the sight. Sonic sat there, motionless, the only sign that he was alive was the fain and rise and fall of his chest.

Tails touched down next to his foe and depowered his super form. Judging that he might need it later if he knew his friends at all.

"Can I ask you a few questions hedgehog?" Tails asked, sitting cross-legged next to the near dead hedgehog.

He didn't get a response verbally, the only clue Sonic heard his inquisition was that his eyes raised ever so slowly. He didn't have the energy to talk.

"Have you ever lost like that before? Perhaps the one fight in your life that you _needed_ to win, and then you lost."

Sonic didn't show any physical changes to his taunt, but his eyes showed a deep sadness.

"I guess not. I have to ask though. Well I don't have to, but I want to. It's more fun to torment the helpless. I've done it before, you may know him. His name's Tails."

Sonic's eyes showed confusion, clearly he would have to elaborate.

"He's locked away deep in here." He began, tapping a finger against his skull for emphasis. "I suppose now that I told you about where _he _is I suppose you want to know who _I _am."

Sonic's eyes showed a feared gaze with a mix of surprise and anger.

"What's with that look? Is it because you realized that if you had killed me, which wasn't happening by the way because I was holding back greatly in our fight, then you would have killed the very person you were trying to save? Yes, that must be it." He answered his own question while rubbing his chin in mock thought.

"I guess I was the person Tails was supposed to turn out to be. If he hadn't met you that is, he would have been far more like the Moebius Miles except more volatile. I don't have a name but I suppose you could call me whatever you please. I don't care much in particular, I'll just keep using his body and name while I'm in control, which will be forever."

Sonic's hands began to clench in anger despite the shooting pain it caused him. But regardless how much he demanded his body to move, _to fight_, it refused. His dark super form didn't have the healing properties that his regular one did. It was a miracle that he was even alive.

"It's been fun Sonic, really it has." Tails began, his hand aglow with a dark green glow that signified a chaos spear.

"But you need to die." Just as Tails was about to release his fatal blow, he stopped and dissipated it as a grin, far too dark in nature, adorned his face before he began chuckling.

"Actually I have a better idea. Tell me, does that fox girl still have feelings for the green imbecile?"

Sonic became officially confused at this point, he had no clue whether or not Fiona still cared for Scourge, it was the big reason no one wanted to trust her. But Tails had convinced them all otherwise, or was it this thing in front of him that convinced them? He didn't care anymore

"I'll be right back, I'm going to bring that fool here and rip his throat out. It's funny because she's already conflicted about me. I'd love to stay and chat but why don't you have them take care of you for now." Tails vanished in a chaos control shortly before he felt Sally's unmistakable arms cradle what might be his last moments.

"Sonic! Sonic are you okay! Knuckles heal him!" She nearly shouted, only just keeping her composure.

"I have something better than healing him." Knuckles said as he pulled the recently recovered super emeralds from their little pocket dimensions.

Sonic could feel the energies from the emeralds healing his broken body and rejuvenating his fighting spirit. Only after he absorbed them into his body did he realize exactly what his friends had found.

And he liked what they found.

Tails returned with a scowl on his face, Scourge had gotten away and now he would have to deal with the drama and the questions and the tears and…no surely they weren't that competent.

He returned to see the hyper form of Sonic staring him down with his friends standing behind him with all of them fairly beaten up from the natural disasters they had brought about.

"So they found them? Regardless it doesn't matter anymore, as far to my knowledge this is as powerful as you can get. And once I beat you in this form, well, nothing will stop me."

"I'd like to see you stand up to him without your super form." Fiona said with a mocking tone.

But to her surprise Tails began to chuckle before throwing his head back in a much darker, much louder, laugh before stopping suddenly with a completely blank face.

"Unlike you pathetic maggots I don't need the emeralds to transform anymore. Something this powerful relying on outside sources is a large disadvantage that I refuse to accept." Just to prove his point, Tails transformed in front of them with far more flare than he needed to, nearly blasting them away with the sheer force.

When the dust settled, all eyes could see Tails was now in his super form again, a small grin on his face.

"So hedgehog, tell me. Do you feel confident in your ability to defeat me?" He asked.

"I'm positive."

"Then let this be our final bout, if I win you won't walk away. Remember that."

Silence enveloped the two, each taking their respective stances as their chaos energy crackled and sparked off of their bodies with each movement.

"Leave everybody. This is my fight now." Everyone was hesitant to leave, this fight was important to all of them not just to Sonic.

"NOW! If you don't leave you'll get hit in the crossfire and I don't have the time to protect all of you and fight at this level. GO!" Sonic shouted, demanded of his friends.

Against their better judgment, everyone left leaving the two of them alone to settle the differences that could only be solved through the art of combat.

"Sonic I want you to know that I will be holding nothing back in this fight. If you want to win and save the friend you so dearly care about, you must come at me with the intent to kill. Otherwise you will lose. Our earlier battle was that of children compared to what this will be. Do you understand?"

Sonic's answer was to charge straight at Tails with enough force to rip an tear the terrain he was standing on to pieces. Tails quickly chaos controlled just behind him and tried to blast him with a chaos spear that only struck an after image.

'_He's fast…' _Tails's thoughts were interrupted by Sonic slamming down at the spot he just was at a speed reaching that of Mach Ten.

Tails was not too slow to be a contender in this bout though and showed it by chaos controlling just in front of Sonic only to reappear directly behind him and deliver a series of powerful punches and kicks that were laced with chaos so that they packed that much more power.

A final kick sent Sonic hurtling away with a chaos spear chasing off after him. Before the spear even exploded Sonic had charged back too fast for Tails to react and planted his boot in his face hard enough to send him into the sky.

Just as Tails was gaining control of his momentum another blow sent him flying off into another direction in the sky that was followed by a series of devastating hits that made him look like a floating pinball.

Finally Sonic was gearing up for a much more powerful blow that could put his foe out of commission permanently. But he sensed a chaos control being used to appear behind him and he spun around while firing his own chaos spear at the target and watching as it continued and hit nothing. Sonic's concentration was broken for a split second and it was all that Tails needed to capitalize.

Sonic soon felt an agonizing pain in his knee and then again on his ankle before a violent explosion sent him rocketing down towards the ground where he landed with a violent explosion of dirt and debris. Quickly he threw the debris off of him and jumped out of his hole only for a shooting pain in his left leg to halt him before it was gone.

'_What was that?' _Sonic thought to himself while he looked all over the horizon for his foe finding a good distance away tensed and awaiting any sudden moves from him.

"If were done playing around…" Tails let his threat linger for a moment before his body began crackling with chaos energy again as he overloaded his arms and fists with the destructive force.

But instead of charging to engage in hand to hand, Tails yelled and smashed one of his hands into the ground and unleashed the stored energy on the the poor earth. The move summoned a huge blade of pure chaos energy, twice the size of Tails himself, ripping the ground apart and rushing straight at him with an alarming speed.

Sonic was forced to sidestep drastically out of the way of the move and was blown back slightly as it detonated and nearly swallowed him whole. Sonic felt a quick movement off to his side and trusted his instincts to dodge the swipe from Tails's arm that would have taken his own arm off.

Sonic noticed that the arm Tails never smashed into the dirt was now glowing with some sort of green blade all along his arm. Tails lunged at him again and again, his arm coming closer and closer to whatever Tails was aiming at.

Sonic didn't know if it was his imagination or not, but everytime Tails swung his arm the air seemed to sizzle. Regardless Sonic refused to let the chaos touch him and interrupted Tails's barrage with a kick to the stomach that drove the air out of his lungs before following it up with a spindash that launched him into the ground.

Just as Sonic landed back on the ground, Tails had burst out from underneath his feet and landed a ferocious uppercut to his jaw that lifted him off the ground and rocketed him into the sky. Tails beat him there by chaos controlling and bringing both of is hands down on Sonic's face and sending him back the way he came twice as fast.

Sonic hit thr ground with a thunderous explosion that could be heard from miles away. Sonic unburied himself from the debris and charged up a ferocious spin dash. Sonic hit him hard enough to cough up blood on impact and carry them into the outer atmosphere.

Tails eyes turned red with rage before he charged at Sonic with blinding speed and landed a painful series of punches and kicks before Sonic interrupted it with his own uppercut that stopped his aggressor cold. This pattern repeated even as the blood they were losing from the blows was piling up and exhaustion set in.

"Just. Stay. Down!" Tails shouted over the thunderous impacts he and Sonic exchanged.

"Bite me!" Sonic shouted right back.

Tails did just so. Sonic yelled in pain as Tails's razor sharp teeth dug into his skin and tried to bite his whole arm off. Sonic punched Tails in the head as fast and as hard as possible as his aggressors face became more mangled with each hit as both of their healing factors were slowing down the longer the battle raged on.

Eventually Tails head came free with a satisfying tear of his opponents flesh, leaving a large chunk of skin missing. Sonic screamed in pain and frustration as he spin dashed into Tails's stomach hard enough to set him ablaze from reentry.

But Tails had slowed to a stop before he hit the ground and Sonic met him there across from him panting heavily as well as sagging his body slightly in exhaustion. Tails was not much different.

"Fighting…*pant*…at this level…*pant*…is absolutely exhilarating! I didn't know anyone…*pant*…could fight at this level except me!" Tails wheezed out while trying to push the pain from his severe headache to the back of his mind.

'_My head is the only thing he's hitting.'_ Tails thought to himself.

"Don't you remember? We've both used…*pant*…the super emeralds before…*pant*…if you've been…*pant*…inside Tails head this…*pant*…whole time you would…*pant*…know." Sonic wheezed out himself, feeling his energy begin to return but far too slow to help much.

'_What is he talking about?' _Tails wondered.

Tails didn't say anymore before his body began crackling with chaos energy, though far more than the first time. The ground around him began to shake and a huge earthquake began.

"What are you doing?!" Sonic shouted in worry.

"I'LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO BE AFRAID OF!" Tails shouted loud enough for it to be heard from miles away. Lightning was striking around the two of them. Tornadoes were in the horizon and they could feel the planet fighting the power of a chaos energy deficit their raging battle was causing.

He then blasted towards Sonic so quickly and so powerfully, the terrain behind him was utterly annihilated. He was on Sonic so quickly it appeared to Sonic that Tails chaos controlled in front of him.

So when he blocked Tails punch he could feel his arm bones turn to complete dust as he was sent flying away with a terrifyingly loud sonic boom as his body reached ridiculously high speeds instantaneously.

* * *

><p><em>Elsewhere<em>

* * *

><p>"How could they do this to each other? Those two were family for so long." Sally said, on the verge of tears after the day's events.<p>

"I don't think they see each other as family anymore Sally." Fiona said as comfortingly as she could with a soothing hand on her new friends back.

"What happened to Tails? Why would he do this to us?" Sally asked while casting a glance toward the female fox that absolutely begged for answers.

But she had none to give and cast a dejected look towards the ground and then to the other members of their group.

Knuckles wore a dark scowl on his face, and limped back and forth in an injured version of pacing.

Shadow simply said nothing, eyes closed in deep thought of Tails words before their last battle started.

All of them looked confused when the earthquake started, and they were even more confused when the storms started. Then they heard Tails's declaration of fear.

"They're going to kill each other!" Sally stated almost breaking down again.

"I have to go evacuate the citizens, you three stay here in case Sonic needs our help." Shadow said, chaos controlling away to the city. She knew the reason he didn't go super and fight with Sonic to stop Tails but it didn't aggravate her any less.

"I'm worthless in a fight right now, I have to go help him. I think it's safe to say that these two are going to fight until they can't move. When that happens you can help." Knuckles said before gliding away to give his leg some rest.

* * *

><p><em>Back With Sonic and Tails<em>

* * *

><p>Sonic found himself unable to move, Tails was relentless with his attacks. Back and forth back and forth; it didn't stop no matter how many times his bones broke. It only stopped when Tails grabbed him by the throat and flew down straight into the ground as fast and as hard as possible.<p>

Tails jumped out of the rubble pit he had created and promptly fell to his knees in exhaustion, his super form flickering off for the briefest of moments.

'_Never thought a being could push me so far.'_

Tails gathered his breath and stood to his feet before he spoke down into the hole.

"You've earned my respect Sonic, but I know you don't have the power needed to beat me. As a show of pity, I'll let Tails exist until you give up trying to save him." Tails never saw him coming, he was beaten and broken, but he was wasn't dead yet.

This time when Tails regained his bearings he saw the now enraged hedgehog staring back at him and trembling with rage.

Surprisingly Sonic kept his composure as he spoke, just barely restraining himself from bull rushing the exhausted fox. At this point, there fight had been reduced to whoever could gather enough strength to attack first.

"I'll rip you to pieces for what you've done! You took the closest thing I have to a brother, for that I will personally see you off to hell!" Sonic was running out of time to act, his hyper form was dwindling and Tails was beginning to move again. He had to act now.

Sonic saw red and began charging up a spindash so violently he was shooting melted rock instead of dirt. He had already sensed the hidden chaos charges and planned on blasting by them so quick that Tails wouldn't notice.

It worked.

Sonic rammed into Tails so hard the Kitsune coughed up blood before violently rocketing off into the air again This time however, Sonic gave him no respite and attacked again and again almost before he even thought about it. Once more Sonic smashed into the battered Mobian pinball and sent him smashing into the ground in an explosion that dwarfed Tails's previous attack.

But instead of charging down to engage him on foot Sonic sat and charged one of his personal favorite spin dash attacks. Orbs of blue tinted light flew towards Sonic in a predicted, circular, pattern until he was aglow more than normal with a bright blue light.

Tails had only kicked the debris off of his head before a blazing orange hedgehog hit him in the head with an axe kick that was travelling at the speed of light. Sonic crammed every bit of his frustration and anger and hate into his last attack and was certain he had won when Tails had yelled out in pain loud enough to hurt his ears.

The impact had completely and utterly destroyed the area they were battling in with an immense and monstrous impact explosion. Where a mountain once stood now sat a mile deep crater that was three mile across and in its center sat an exhausted and blue hedgehog on his hands and knees, his hyper form spent, and a barely stirring Kitsune beside him.

* * *

><p><em>Back With Sally and Fiona<em>

* * *

><p>The two of them had felt more than saw the last impacts and the resulting explosions, it was impossible not to feel it. But once she did Sally had had enough of waiting and charged off towards the relatively close crater.<p>

"Sally wait! We don't know if it's safe!" Fiona shouted after her. Eventually she relented and followed behind, swearing under her breath as she did so.

Eventually the two of them came across the crater that the two fighters landed in and couldn't believe their eyes.

Both of them were still fighting, but it wasn't a fight anymore. It was more than that. Now I t was a battle to see who would walk away.

They were both on the ground, flat on their backs from the recent exchange but Tails was getting to his feet quicker. Fiona didn't know when she ran, but she knew why.

Fiona planted herself between the two of them and spread her arms wide showing Tails he wouldn't get by her. She watched with a pained feeling in her chest as Tails began walking toward her, more limping.

She heard Sally slide beside her and mimic her posture.

"You guys have to stop! Look what you've done to yourselves! Tails please listen to me!" Sally shouted out as tears flowed unbidden down her cheeks. Fiona had something similar to say.

"Please listen to her Tails! You don't have to do this! You're not the Tails that saved my life! You're just a monster walking in his skin." She shouted, her own tears almost spilling from her eyes. She cared deeply for Tails, but not this thing that had replaced him.

"How accurate…" He droned to himself.

She flinched, despite their distance apart, when Tails began running at her. The look in his eyes made her think he was going to run _through_ her and her suspicions were correct when Tails's arm was enveloped in chaos all the way down his arm to a point.

"Stop Tails!" Fiona shouted.

He kept coming at the full speedhis damaged body would allow.

"Stop!" Sally shouted.

They realized too late that they weren't his true target. He jumped onto Fiona's shoulder and then jumped again so that she was forced into the dirt.

Now nothing stood between him and Sonic.

But they had forgotten how resilient the hedgehog was.

Almost as soon as Tails jumped off of Fiona, Sonic had simply jumped and kicked him in the face hard enough that he felt his jaw brake. Tails landed a good distance away and rolled a bit before stopping in a spread eagle fashion on the ground.

Sonic had landed and immediately was on Tails, grabbing him by the scruff on his chest and punching him in the face hard enough to break his nose. Then again he hit him until Tails broke the string of punches by head-butting Sonic in the face hard enough to break his nose and the two of them reversed positons with Tails on top and throwing a handful of his own punches before he felt something hit his side hard enough to knock him off of Sonic.

He realized that the thing now holding him down was the red vixen he had managed to fall for. She wasn't nearly as strong as she needed to be to hold him down though, quicker than she could react he brought his feet to her chest and threw her off of him.

Scrambling to his feet he was taken out by a flying kick to his face that left a vaguely Tails shaped print on Sonic's boot made from his blood. It sent him rolling into a rock wall behind him. Sonic moved to follow up his attack but over judged the damage Tails had suffered and bounced off of the wall behind where Tails had just been sitting with his skull.

He felt someone grab the quills on the back of his head and instinctively flared them and felt them dig into whatever was holding him. But forgot all about it when his skull was smashed into the rock hard enough to crack the rock and splatter it with blood. Tails moved to do it again but Sonic brought his elbow up to strike Tails dead in his broken nose.

It was enough to have him release his head and Sonic immediately followed it up with a spin kick to the side of Tails head that had him spinning away a good distance where he collapsed. Sonic followed shortly after and collapsed against the rock.

Rushing to his side Sally and Fiona attempted to make Sonic stop fighting but he asked a simple question before he agreed. "Has he stopped moving yet?"

The two of them glanced towards the unmoving body of Tails and watched as he attempted to get up again.

"THEN NO!" Sonic shouted as he vaulted up to his feet far quicker than someone in his condition should have been able to.

Tails blindly threw his elbow back and caught Sonic in his ribs, driving the air out of his lungs. Tails followed it up with a punch to his face and then put everything behind one last punch to his stomach that pushed any will to fight out of his body out through his mouth.

Tails wobbled slightly before he fell to his knees and began laughing as the rain began to pour as it washed away his blood.

"My god you don't stop…no wonder Eggman can't beat you…" Tails said as he rolled Sonic on his back and punched him several times in his beaten, bruised, and bloody face. He did until something struck the side of his head and he rolled off clutching the painful blow and glaring daggers at Sally who now held Sonic protectively in her arms.

He made a move to attack until a long tube struck him in the stomach hard enough that he gasped in pain before the same object hit him in the chin and made him roll backwards onto his ass before he noticed Fiona was the one who hit him. He laughed until she hit him across the face hard enough to apparently knock him unconscious.

She dropped the metal pole she found and ran to give Sonic the limited medical attention she could give him. Sonic was barely conscious when she got there, and she didn't know if either one would make it.

They were all startled when they heard insane sounding laughter come from Tails as he crawled to his feet.

"I was never going to kill you two! But now you've forced my hand! Chaos control!" Tails snapped his fingers and suddenly the Sonic, Sally, and Fiona were surrounded by hundreds of chaos spears.

"What you don't understand is that I am not Tails! I am his _killer!_ NOW I'M YOU KILLER TOO!" Tails shouted over the thunderstorm that now soaked them all. They were forced to watch as they were swallowed whole by the chaos spear rain.

'_**NOOOO!' **_Tails's darkness heard his prisoner scream ferociously as he fought against his mental barriers with everything he could.

'_You're too late!' _It thought right back, straining to keep the fox locked in his own mind.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Bam done, next chapter will be a short epilogue and then it's done. Sorry that this doesn't seem too Tails x Fiona. I wanted to set that up for the sequel and I put as much as was necessary in, no more no less. Trust me, I didn't want to force anything in this **_**very**_** combat driven story. But please I want you opinion, how did I do?**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: This whole story was already written before I published the first chapter so I don't know how soon I'll put the sequel up. If anyone wants one that is.**

* * *

><p>Sonic awoke with a start, something he immediately regretted as his body was engulfed in a fiery pain that felt like his individual limbs were being stepped by thousands of elephants. The only clue that told him where he was was the blindingly white room that greeted his eyes and the two or three Mobians bursting into his room and giving him something before he was unconscious again.<p>

This time however, Sonic did not wake with a frightening start. It was a much more gradual and aware awakening. He was in a hospital, and that meant those Mobians that came in before were nurses or doctors.

That meant he defeated Tails right? Tails had made it clear that if he won, he would end Sonic's life. Then why did he feel so terrible?

"Where am I?" The question blurted out of his mouth before he realized it and a very relieved sounding sigh was greeted by his ears.

"Sonic, are you awake? Are you all right?" The voice belonged to Sally, she was always there if he had gotten himself hurt.

"Where's Tails?" He blurted out again. His vision had cleared and he noticed who the other voice in the room belonged to Fiona who's face contorted to one of pain and then to one of betrayal.

"Sonic…he got away after you saved us with chaos control. I'm sorry but…he's a fugitive now. I didn't have a choice, after word got out that it was Tails's fault the city got demolished a second time by him and what happened to all of those Freedom Fighters…they forced my hand."

"RRARGH!" Sonic growled out, grabbing the metal railing by his bed hard enough to make the metal give.

"I failed! I couldn't' bring him back to his senses…" Sonic growled out through his own choked sobs.

"Sonic please, tell us what Tails meant by him being his own killer." Fiona asked grabbing his hand and squeezing it in an attempt to comfort him.

* * *

><p><em>Elsewhere<em>

* * *

><p>"<strong>Master, you shouldn't be wandering around, you aren't healed yet." <strong>A robotic voice said in a worried tone.

"I don't care, I have work to do. Tails almost escaped and that can't happen again."

"**If you insist." **The robotic voice said in a resigned manner

The two figures walked in silence for a while, one stepping with a metallic clang, and the other with the familiar sound of shoes scuffing metal floors. Eventually the two of them came upon a door with a familiar face on it.

"You know what to do." The Mobian said.

"**As you command master." **The bot replied.

Quickly the metal one of the two ripped the door apart and stepped in, with the Mobian following behind shortly after. They both laughed at the sight of the portly doctor falling out of his chair and his face contorting from one of surprise to one of rage.

"YOU! I'll have your head for breaking into my facility!" Quickly the doctor was inside of his Eggmobile.

"It amazes to this day how fast this fat idiot can move. Auto, deactivate this fool's toy." He said.

"**Yes master." **She replied while raising her arm and firing off a small device that attached to the bottom of the Eggmobile. Immediately upon impact the doctor's machine plummeted into the ground as he fell out of it and sat with a feared gaze aimed at his attackers.

"What do you want? Also, why is she here?" Eggman asked, regaining his composure and pointing an accusing finger at the shorter Mobian in front of him.

"I found her on a beach I was on a few years ago all rusted and deactivated, so I took her in and repaired her, and I added a few _features_. For a robian, she looks very organic. That, doctor, is impressive and if I didn't know better I'd say you roboticized the real deal. But I do know better because the real thing is hot for me."

The robot in question shyly scuffed the floor with her foot as if she was embarrassed about the topic.

He looked towards the bot next to him with a raised eyebrow of interest before grinning slightly and looking back to the doctor. "She is too if you didn't know. But back to why I'm here, I'm here because I want your facilities."

"What? Why?"

"Because, it may not look like it but I am in a great deal of pain right now thanks to Sonic, and I don't have the energy to build a factory right now so I thought I'd take yours and remodel them a little bit to be worth a damn."

"Why would you, of all people, get in a scuffle with that rodent?" The doctor asked, carefully dancing around the handover of his facilities.

"Well, I needed the chaos emeralds for a project I had in mind. He didn't like that idea, even after I told him how much of a good thing it would be, and I pounded him into the dirt. Twice."

Eggman raised an eyebrow in curiosity, "Why would you fight him twice?"

Tails brought his hands up in shrug. "The first time was real quick. The second time however was the source of those earthquakes and storms a few weeks back. It's also where I killed him."

At this point Eggman allowed himself a large belly laugh. Wiping a tear from his eye he said. "You? Kill Sonic? That is ridiculous. I've been trying for years and I couldn't even kill you with help. You expect me to believe that you of all people would _kill _him when you won't even kill me? Preposterous!"

"That's the reason I'm here. Auto, if you don't mind." Immediately the doctor saw the change in the robot's demeanor as it ran up and broke his knees and smashed his face into the floor. He was then thrown against the wall where a large crack was heard as the doctor's skull bounced off the solid steel wall.

"Wait please!" He began through his bloody nose and pounding headache. "Maybe we could come to an agreement!" The fox robot had lifted him up by his throat and was moving the snap it when Tails placed a hand on her shoulder causing her to look at him in surprise.

"What kind of deal?"

"I'll hand over my facilities willingly if you don't kill me. I'll also program my robots, that are already built, specifically to follow you and only you." The doctor said.

Tails rubbed his chin with his hand, pondering the question. "That would be beneficial to me. _Very _beneficial."

Eggman began counting his lucky stars until Tails got a dark grin on his face. "But I already did that." With nothing more holding her back the bot snapped the doctor's neck without a second thought.

"Well Auto, let's get started."

"**As you say master."**

* * *

><p><em>Elsewhere<em>

* * *

><p>"<strong>Everything is falling into place perfectly. Soon, soon I will have my revenge Hedgehog."<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>AN: There you go. No more from me for a bit. Hope you enjoyed!**


End file.
